


Adventures of Dadhog

by lolzwaitwhat



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Adopted Children, Best Friends, Brothers, Cousins, Crushes, Developing Relationship, Dogs, Eventual Romance, F/M, Family, Fatherhood, Fluff, Friendship, Humor, Other, Pets, Secret Relationship, Sisters, Slow Burn, Sorry Not Sorry, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-15
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2020-10-19 05:44:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 60
Words: 322,969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20652152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lolzwaitwhat/pseuds/lolzwaitwhat
Summary: Roadhog sat on the airship, staring down at the chillingly thin child curled up in the nook of his arm, asleep.If you had told him six hours ago when they landed that he’d be leaving with a plus one, well, if he knew you, he’d growl at you to ‘get fucked’ and if he didn’t, he’d shoot you in the face just for talking to him with a grumble of, “Mind yer own damn business.”





	1. Plus One?

Roadhog sat on the airship, staring down at the chillingly thin child curled up in the nook of his arm, asleep.

If you had told him six hours ago when they landed that he’d be leaving with a plus one, well, if he knew you, he’d growl at you to ‘get fucked’ and if he didn’t, he’d shoot you in the face just for talking to him with a grumble of, “Mind yer own damn business.”

The mission had been pretty straight forward, they had gotten intel that Hyde International, the company he and his lanky, pyromaniac of a boss, had gone to back in Sydney to try to go legit before joining this racket, had apparently made a deal with Talon to sell some new weapon they called ‘M011’. They had sent it to be picked up via a warehouse in Canada. The plan was have a few members distract Talon while Junkrat blew it wide open with him and Symmetra to help keep any stragglers off his back. Once it was open, they’d report what kind of weapon it was and he and Junkrat would bring it back to the ship while Symmetra would use a special software the ape had put onto her phone and use it to hack any tech in the container, steal all the data and then make sure they could never use it again.

Shortly after arriving, Mercy and the old man Reinhardt went on ahead with the military bitch Pharah to cause a distraction while they rushed through destroying any and all cameras before going over towards the very obvious and out of place seeming metal shipping container shoved into the corner of the room.

After checking for traps or bots (in case they tried to pull something like last time) and finding the area clear of them, Roadhog crushed the shitty little padlock with his bare hand before flinging the doors of the container open, revealing a large safe.

His fellow junker’s eyes lit up with impish glee as he hobbled towards it, “Ain’ she a beaut’?” he asked to no one in particular before letting out an eager cackle and getting to work. Roadhog glanced from left to right, double checking the perimeter, besides his boss placing charges and Symmetra setting up turrets near the entrance ways, the place was clear and devoid of life…

And there was something odd about it.

No guards, no extra security, either these suits were really stupid or really trusting. And he knew that they were neither.

He remembered seeing a small office area when they came in and rumbled to Junkrat that he’d be checking the office space. His smoldering companion said nothing and stayed focused on his task, not that he had expected anything else, once he started fiddling with his bombs, very little could pull his attention away. The mountain of a man sighed before turning to one of the few things that _could_ easily get his attention:

Symmetra.

He lumbered over towards her, his chain jingling as his heavy feet unintentionally punished the pavement beneath them. It wasn’t that he couldn’t understand part of his attraction to her, he wasn’t blind, he could see how physically appealing the woman could be (especially in those dresses slit up to her thighs, DEM LEGS!!), and while his loud friend seemed to be a crazed, explosives obsessed mad man, he was actually quite smart in his own right, knowing how to take odds and ends and make something out of them was something he did best (besides blow shit up, start fires or fucking around when he shouldn’t). So seeing her make something out of thin air with nothing but a blue glow and a few flashy hand movements was mind boggling to him. Not to mention the fact that, despite being a suit, she had their backs in a fight. No shield withholding (even when Rat pissed her off), no turrets ‘malfunctioning’ and shooting them, no actual shots to the back, _nothing_. The worst she ever did to them was scold Rat for being reckless while out in the field, and Hog didn’t mind that at all, made his job keeping his ass safe easier and meant that he didn’t have to do it when he _really _went over the top and got himself hurt.

But Roadhog had a hard time trusting her, and not just because of their history with being screwed over by suits, he had overheard that kid, Lúcio, telling that D.va girl about the crap her company had done to his home. Kicking people out of their homes to put some big fancy building there that they didn’t want, breaking promises to give them new homes, forcing curfews on people to squash riots, keeping people locked up for fighting back, paying blokes with guns to keep the people ‘in line’, it was like back when the Australian government had that stupid Omnium built all those years ago. It’s what drove him and many others to fight back and try to take back what was theirs, only to lose everything in the process... But, still, the Australian government never tried to _mind control_ them with sound to get them to do what they wanted like Viskhar had planned on doing. (But he figured that was more because they had enough troubles trying to patch what was left of Australia back together than lack of desire to do so) And while that girl seemed nice and somewhat friendly (if a bit cold a times) enough, he was keeping his eyes peeled, just in case.

By the time he reached her, she finished placing another turret and had been turning around (for whatever reason) and jumped when she saw how close he was and let out a yelp. Junkrat’s head shot up from his work as she placed her hand on her chest, as if trying to slow her heart rate with it.

“Sorry.” He said, his deep, low voice a bit warped by the mask, “Gonna check th’ offices, be back in a bit.” She nodded, obviously still in shock as she slowly managed to calm herself down with quiet, deep breaths. He made his way to it as she, in turn, walked towards Junkrat, who, after making eye contact and giving a little nod, went back to work, mumbling something to Symmetra that he couldn’t really make out from where he was.

There were two separate little offices with very small windows near the front and back of the space and four cubicles set up closer towards the front with a separate break room that had two bathroom doors (men and women’s) along the right as he entered and two vending machines, one for snacks and one for sodas, to the left. before the doors to the bathroom was a small kitchenette with a sink, some counter space, a fridge, a microwave and a coffee machine. In the center of the room was a single square topped table with four chairs, one for each side. Along the back wall were posters with cute animals and supposedly encouraging words underneath them along with a sheet of paper about something he didn’t care about.

The whole space took him about five minutes to look through (except the girl’s bathroom, he never went in there. He may be an internationally known criminal, a murderer, a thief, and a junker, but even he didn’t break the unspoken sacred rule of no boys in the girl’s bathroom.) before deciding that, other than maybe stealing a snack or seven from the vending machine, this space had nothing to offer to soothe his unease nor did it hold any kind of helpful significance intel wise (since every computer here had all of each users passwords on a sticky note on each monitor and he doubted that the suits would trust such risky data on computers that even someone as not tech savvy as him could probably find and access so easily.) so he glanced back into the large open area of the warehouse.

Junkrat seemed to be almost done with placing the charges and Symmetra was in a far corner away from him, her hands seeming to weave something that resembled headphones, most likely for when his blast-loving partner pushed the detonator.

He walked back towards them, his heavy gait and clinking chains seeming to catch both of their attentions and making them look up at him, “They have some computers, but doubt tha’ there’s anything useful on ‘um.”

“Perhaps,” Symmetra said, slipping the newly formed noise canceling headphones around Junkrat’s neck, surprising both Junkers with the gesture, not that she seemed to notice, “But even the littlest amount of information could be helpful.” He lifted his shoulders in a half-hearted shrug and grunted for her to follow. A peek back through the foggy peripherals of his goggled vision revealed a blushing Junkrat, who was looking down at the object she had placed on his person, child-like awe on his face at the gift.

Roadhog felt a small smile grow on his face, Junkrat had still been pretty young when Oz became hell, so he grew up without knowing (or remembering much about) what it was like to have someone show him any kind of care for his safety or health without having to pay them for it in some way. (Hell, he was still paying him for his services even after they joined Overwatch…) So for her to give him something to keep his eardrums from being ripped to shreds (which Roadie still couldn’t believe hadn’t happened a long time ago) meant far more than she probably knew. He shot his friend a thumbs up from behind his back and saw his smoking haired pal give a wide, golden speckled smile back before opening the door and allowing Symmetra inside the office area, earning himself a ‘Thank you, Roadhog’ in return.

After pointing out where the computers were, he decided to see what those vending machines in the tiny little break room had snack-wise, while he waited for her to finish.

Upon grabbing the doorknob to open the door, he heard the sound of breaking glass from inside.

He quickly glanced around, the suit was gone, most likely into one of the closed off offices, and he figured Junkrat would be sitting in the same spot admiring something that would probably become a precious treasure. So he could count on neither of them being aware of what he just heard.

Good. Best if they were out of the way if this was Talon or some bloke with a death wish or something, and as much as he knew it was better to have back up, Symmetra wasn’t fond of killing at all, preferring more peaceful strategies and Junkrat wasn’t fond of him not blowing the bad guys up (although he always felt bad when innocents got wrapped up in his bullshit, after they’d make their escape, he’d slip away for a while to place flowers for those who he had never had any intention to hurt.) So, neither of them would be helpful in this situation, since this person could be dangerous (since he hadn’t seen them when he was here a few minutes ago) and using explosives for anything other than opening the safe could alert Talon to them nicking their new weapon and making the plan far more difficult to achieve.

With a deep breath, he pushed the door open, gun drawn and pointed towards where the sound had come from…

Only to find a kid curled up on the floor, struggling to open a packaged pastry and the glass of the vending machine broken and lying on the floor. She had to be maybe six or seven or so based on her size, her grimy blonde hair was short with two little cowlicks that seemed to curl a bit on the ends sticking out of the middle of her head, her skin was pale and somehow blood and cut free, making him wonder how she had managed to break the glass without hurting herself and without anything to smash the machine with.

She looked up at him, violet orbs wide with panic as she realized that she had been caught in the act. He was surprised by this reaction. Normally when children saw him, they were usually terrified and crying or stunned into silence by intimidating presence, not freaking out cause they got caught breaking shit.

“You do this?” he grumbled. The girl tucked her head down towards her chest and nodded. He looked at her, judging by the fact that he could see her ribs and the bones in her arms and legs through what looked like an old, stained dress, whoever she was and wherever she came from, she probably hadn’t eaten in a long, long time. And the rumbling of his stomach reminded him that neither had he. He looked at the machine and squinted at the contents before deciding to help himself to one of the big pastries like the one little girl had chosen for herself. He carefully reached his hand inside, as to not cut himself, and pulled one out before slowly lowering himself to the ground beside her, being careful not to sit on any glass, “Good. Saves me th’ trouble.” He said, putting his gun away and tearing away the thin plastic with ease with his large, powerful fingers.

The kid looked confused, then relieved as she resumed to try to open the packaging, her little pink tongue poking out a corner of her mouth as she seemed to pull on it with all her lacking might. Roadhog watched for a few seconds before she changed tactics to try tearing it open with her teeth, deciding that this was far too pitiful to witness anymore and held his treat out for her, “’Ere, trade ya.” He offered. After a few seconds, she nodded and the two exchanged treats. She cautiously pulled at the thin plastic before she took a bite, her expression melting into one of glee as she chewed. He let out a laugh, his belly jiggling, “Yer welcome.” He barked as he lifted his mask and took a bite of his own food, practically eating the whole damn thing in one bite, a realization hitting him as he lowered his mask back down and chewed.

He had been here a few minutes ago, and he hadn’t seen her. So… _where the hell had she come from_?

The only possible option of where she had come from was from the girl’s bathroom (since he never checked it). Her hands were definitely cleaner than the rest of her, would support his theory. Speaking of which, this kid was a complete and total mess, and considering he had lived in a place with no plumbing nor enough safe water to bathe much if at all for twenty years or so _and_ worked with a man who happily lounged around in his own soot and grime for nearly three years, _that_ was saying something. She had no shoes, so he saw her wiggling her toes as she happily took another bite of her treat before scratching a spot behind her ear, the shoulder of her gown slipping a bit to reveal what seemed to be some sort of cord tied around her frail neck.

Roadhog shoved his mask up again to savor his last bite of pastry into his mouth as looked down at the tiny creature munching beside him as the pieces of information he managed to gather in the short time he’d met her seeming to form an unpleasant picture in his head as he pulled his mask back down again. He now had a pretty good feeling about where this child had come from, but he still had to ask, “Where’d you come from, kid?”

The child looked up at him, surprised, before pointing towards the girl’s bathroom.

“Yeah?” he said, more saying it more to himself than asking for confirmation, but she gave it to him anyway in the form of a nod.

“’N where were ya ‘fore then?” he inquired. She glanced down at the packaging and her unfinished snack before looking back up at him, “Yeah, yeah, ya can show me when yer done.” He agreed. She smiled broadly at him before she finished off the last bite eagerly, crumbs and a bit of jam in the corner of her mouth. He gently wiped them off with a finger, much to both of their surprise. He’d had no idea why he’d done it, he didn’t know this kid, he didn’t know if she’d be okay with such a gesture or why he’d do so without warning, it just felt like the right thing to do.

When was the last time he’d done such a thing? ‘Not for a very long toime…’ he thought to himself.

Her surprise seemed to be more at the way he had do what he had than the action itself, as if she wasn’t used to people being gentle with her, which set off all sorts of red flags with him. She eventually got over that before she tentatively touched around her mouth, surprised to see that it was clean, she even licked it for good measure and pouted at when she realized it was free of crumbs or jam.

“Oi, no need ta pout.” He told her as he pulled out a candy bar from the machine and tore it open for her, “’Ere, eat this too.” She looked at it, curious. Her cowlicks curling into something that resembled question marks on her head. “It’s chocolate.” He explained, “It’s good. You’ll loike it. Noice ‘n sweet.” She seemed uncertain at first as she slowly accepted it from him, so he took a small piece off, pulled his mask up and ate it, a smile crawling up his face as he did so before pulling it back down over his face.

He was a big fan of chocolate, always had been, he’d actually snuck into Mercy’s office when she wasn’t paying attention to get his hands on those boxes of fancy Swiss Chocolates after discovering them hidden away behind some books (he’d been injured after a mission and wanted something to read). She eventually confronted him about it, but upon hearing how they’d become his favorites, they made a deal, he’d drag Rat in for his appointments and if he was injured and she’d order extra boxes of the chocolates for him and put them in his room for him. (He had planned on dragging Rat there anyway because he was being a baby about it, but the chocolates were an extra insentive that he wasn’t about to pass up.)

Upon seeing that that he enjoyed it, she eagerly inhaled the sweet, smiling broadly with chocolate on her face before looking up at him and then the broken machine and back again as if asking for another suggestion for something tasty, the little stray hairs sticking out from her head curling into the shape of a heart on her head.

Roadhog paused, eh, one more snack wouldn’t hurt her, not with how skinny she was… And after that, he’d take her outside to the others…

He pulled out a bag of barbeque flavored chips, “This one’s not sweet, but still pretty good.” He informed her as he opened it and handed it to her, “Got good flavor.”

There was no hesitation this time, she shoved the chips into her gob with fervor, surprised when she bit down to hear a crunching sound before smiling excitedly and playing around a bit. She held her head up at an angle and began loudly crunching them with her mouth open, making him chuckle. This kid was alright, a bit clueless, but it was actually quite refreshing to see that. To see a child being so happy and acting so silly, it was something he hadn’t seen in decades, especially with him being close and her not being scared of him.

When she finished, she smiled broadly and licked her lips, patting her belly happily, a small pile of empty wrappers around her.

“All roight, ya ready ta go now.” She nodded and, with some effort, managed to pull herself onto her feet. She then made her way over to the door, and began pushing the door with what little strength she had.

It may have been a push open door to get in, but it was a pull door to get out. He watched her try to shove it open in a way he knew it wouldn’t for a few seconds before letting out a huff, getting up and scooping her up with one arm while pushing the door open with the other.

“I’ll walk, you point.” He offered. With a grateful nod and smile, she pointed towards the door he came through to this area and back towards the area where his explosive partner in crime and his beloved suit (who had evidently finished her task of data mining and returned to his lanky companion was without letting him know) were by the large container. The supposed mad man muttering to himself as he seemed to be confirming the correct placement of the charges while the architect was fashioning a new pair of headphones out of thin air, most likely for herself.

That is, until he got closer and they heard the sounds of his feet against the cement and the jingling of his chain and looked up at him and saw he wasn’t alone. Junkrat hobbled over with Symmetra behind him, her newly formed headphones clutched tightly in the woman’s slim fingers.

“What’s with th’ ankle biter, Roadie?” Junkrat asked once the pair were barely a foot away from him.

“Found ‘er gettin’ a snack in th’ kitchen.” He grunted.

“’N ya didn’ bring me anything?” He pouted, the playful tone and the twinge of a smile in the corner of his mouth giving him away to Roadhog immediately (not that he would have really cared even if he had meant it or not), but the girl seemed to believe it and bent her head in a silent apology. The pout quickly fell away to a broad grin as he lifted her out of his bodyguard’s arms (being careful that his metallic right arm stayed firmly on skin covered in fabric as to not accidently pinch her with his prosthetic) and settled her to sit on to his own shoulders, “Oi, no worries, you didn’ know we was ‘ere! But next toime, save me some, alroight?” The child mirrored his grin with a nod before starting to laugh as he began spinning around on his peg leg. It was an endearing sight, especially since she hadn’t made a single sound since discovered, but the moment was brought to a halt for him as Symmetra pointed out that, “We didn’t know she was here, either,” before giving Roadhog a stern expression, “I thought you said you had found nothing.”

“I didn’.” he confirmed, “But I didn’ check th’ little sheila’s room.”

“And why not?” she pressed.

He gave her a flat look, only to remember that she could not see it through his mask, but Junkrat had his back on this one, “Are you serious?” he asked, the child’s surprised expression showing that she agreed with them. The woman, however, still did not.

“Come on, Sym, I doubt th’ bad guys are gonna stop ta take a piss before cartin’ away th’ goods. Plus, anyone who does work here is prob’ly at home fer th’ night. So who’d be in there?” The child raised her hand happily, waving it in the air like the nerdy kid in class who knew the answer to a question and wanted to tell it but the teacher was taking their sweet time while picking who got to answer it, and Symmetra simply rose an eyebrow in response and motioned to the eager volunteer with her sleek, white and blue hand.

“I get it.” Roadhog snorted, annoyed, “But ‘er bein’ in th’ bathroom fer a bit don’ explain how she even got ‘ere.” The two other adults in the room paused at his point before turning to the container, the possibility he believed to be true slowly dawning on them, “Th-that can’t be…” Symmetra stammered, “Hyde isn’t the most moral company, but surely they aren’t…”

“Only one way ta find out.” Junkrat interrupted, holding up a detonator, “You wanna do th’ ‘onors?” he asked the kid sitting on his shoulders. Her smile was now at the point where Hog doubted it could get any bigger as she nodded vigorously, making Rat laugh before he instructed for her to wait for his signal before plopping the headphones that had still been hanging from his neck onto her head and Symmetra quickly shoved hers onto her own as he began to count down.

“Three.” He chirped, holding up three long, metal fingers, Hog noticed that the headphones seemed to be too big for her and carefully cupped them in his hands and pressed them closer to her ears, just to be safe, last thing they needed was for this kid not to be able to hear them when they needed to ask her questions.

“Two.” He sang, letting one of the fingers curl back up towards his palm. The child looked at him for a moment, surprised by his action before giving his hand a gentle pat, her violet eyes glittering gratefully as she did so, making old Hoggy’s heart melt a little.

“One.” He squealed, putting another finger back towards his palm before pointing to the explosives on the crate. The child pressed the button and her eyes glistening with delight at the power and light the bombs let off during denotation, Junkrat cackling hysterically beneath her, he gave her a pat on the leg with his left arm as he called out, “Good show!” then realized she couldn’t hear him and motioned for Hog to put his hands down and tugged the noise cancelling headphones off her head and down to her neck so she could hear what they were saying.

Symmetra was far less impressed and far more unsettled by the blast, Roadhog let out a soft chuckle that he knew she wouldn’t hear, despite her pressing the headphones so tightly against her head. When he first started working with Junkrat, the overwhelming boom of a bomb going off in the distance or in such small quarters as these would startle him too, but he quickly adapted to the point where even the biggest and most powerful of his boss’s blasts (R.I.P tire) didn’t even phase him at all from any distance. He knew they were happening, but it wasn’t like he was gonna get caught in the blast, Junkrat could be a pest at times, but he knew what he was doing. Hell, at this point, he could even tell his boss’s mood by the different sounds of various explosions and the roars, the crackles and pops of flames.

Once the slight ringing in his ears and the clouds of dust and debris began to fade, Junkrat led their little group towards the smoking remains of the safe. However, once they were a foot or two away from the opening, Symmetra made a face filled with absolute disgust and discontent before covering her nose and mouth with her hands. Junkrat scrunched his face a bit and waved his metal hand in the air to keep the stench away from the kid, who seemed a bit embarrassed as she tried to use the headphones to cover her nose and mouth, not noticing Junkrat keeping a firm grip on her leg with his human hand, but other than that, there was no indication to him that anything too unpleasant was in the air.

“What?” he asked.

“Smells loike an old thunderbox, mate.” Junkrat informed him.

Ah. He didn’t really have to endure much of those kinds of scents thanks to his mask, so he had been blissfully unaware of the stench, not that he hadn’t dealt with it before, after all, there wasn’t really any kind of plumbing in Junkertown, so the smell of borrie was just a part of life there.

“Thunderbox?” Symmetra repeated, her voice warped a bit by it having to wiggle through her fingers.

“Bathroom.” Hog answered. Symmetra’s expression now one of horror instead of discontent and she took a few steps backwards from the container to take some deep breaths of air that were not tainted with shit and piss. Junkrat, upon noticing that both Symmetra and the ankle biter he was carrying were not going to go much further, he chuckled a bit and informed his mountainous pal that they should wait a tick for the smell to dissipate a bit before going closer, “The sheilas’ ain’ too fond of th’ smell, Roadie, plus, ‘Metra looks ready ta popa vein.” Roadhog saw the trembling woman suck in shaking breaths and how the child seemed upset for her and for the smell and nodded.

It took a few minutes for worst of it to pass, apparently, Junkrat asking Symmetra to help him open a few of the large metal doors to air the place out, letting her get the ones farther from the container than he did so she could regain her composure. Once the smell had mostly been gone, Hog poked his head in the container and looked around; there was a small mattress in one corner, several empty baggies with crumbs around them, several empty water bottles and an overflowing bucket, which he assumed had been her makeshift bathroom for however long the kid had been in here (and most likely the source of the smell). But those weren’t the things that caught their attention.

It was the large hole in the back of both the safe and the metal shell it had been shipped in.

“Tha’ yer way out?” He asked the girl. She nodded cheerfully in reply, pleased that he figured it out.

“Hooley dooley.” Junkrat muttered. Symmetra began muttering things in what he assumed was her native tongue as he walked inside to get a better look at it, finally getting a whiff of what the others had been talking about, but it wasn’t too terrible, his mask did a great job of getting rid of the worst of it.

Upon closer inspection, there was enough space between the container and the wall that the thin child could slip through to make it outside the container without it being noticeable, he guessed that at some point before they had arrived, she had somehow managed to achieve this and leave the horrible stench of this container to get some fresh air, food, water and go to the bathroom somewhere other than the reeking bucket that had been poisoning the air around her for who knows how long.

He climbed out of the container and looked at the child seated on his friend’s shoulders, “Who are you?” he grumbled. The girl paused for a moment, as if uncertain what he had meant, before she smiled and lifted the cord from around her neck and handed it to him, on the end was a data stick with something scribbled on it. He held out his hands and let her drop it onto his massive palm with a soft ‘Ta’, a bit fearful that he might crush her or the stick if he simply took them from her. But once he read what was on the stick he felt so angry he felt as if he could have easily crushed the stick like it was nothing and silently wished for a group of Talon bastards to come in so he could have something to take this rage out on.

His guess had been right;

The stick read ‘M011’. _She_ was the weapon they were sent here to find.

He snarled and showed his co-workers the stick after a few minutes of awkward silence as the reality sunk in, Symmetra began gabbing in that weird language again, holding herself, poor thing, just after she had calmed down, too. After looking up at the kid on his shoulders, the lanky Junker finally spoke up.

“So, uh…” Junkrat giggled nervously as he looked up at his mountainous friend for guidance, “Who’s gonna tell th’ others ‘bout this?”


	2. MERCY ANGRY

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mercy learns that the weapon actually is.
> 
> And she ain't happy about it.

When Symmetra had reported that they had the weapon and the data and would meet them back at the ship, Angela ‘Mercy’ Ziegler was not expecting to see Junkrat with a pair of light blue headphones around his neck while holding up a filthy child in a tainted gown so she could dunk a basketball into a hoop with Lena (who was piloting the ORCA for them for this mission) bouncing up and down on her toes in front of him in a mocked attempt to stop them.

She also hadn’t expected Symmetra and Roadhog to point to said child when Reinhardt asked where the weapon was. Or for them to solemnly shake their heads when Fareeha asked if they were joking before Roadhog showed her a data stick with ‘M011’ written on it and informed them that it had been around the child’s neck, almost like a soldier’s dog tag.

The Egyptian let out a hiss of swears in her native tongue before confirming the identification number on the stick being the name of the weapon Talon was supposed to pick up tonight. Reinhardt looked horrified and carefully took the stick from her with great care, as if damaging it would somehow hurt the person whose name was on it before shaking his head sadly and murmuring something in German before passing it back to Symmetra.

Luckily Junkrat and Lena seemed to pick up on this, and asked him if he wanted to play too. The giant German’s lips curling up into a warm smile as he carefully took the child from Junkrat and began running around the court with her resting on his shoulders, laughing loudly as Junkrat and Lena chased after them, chuckling and jumping in false attempts to stop them from scoring.

As for her, well, to say Angela was livid was an understatement to say the least.

**_“HOW DARE THOSE MONSTERS TOY WITH A CHILD’S LIFE FOR THE SAKE OF WAR AND BLOODSHED!?!?!”_** She had nearly exploded, her normal serene face contorted into a furious snarl and her fair skin red with rage. As Symmetra, Fareeha and Roadhog did their best to keep the others from hearing her with shushing and hisses to keep her voice down.

After spending a few moments to calm down and for the others to give her the details as to how Roadhog had found her and the condition of the container she had been shipped in and was shown photos of the it via pictures Symmetra had taken and such. She had another freak out on the little one’s behalf.

It took two minutes of deep breaths and temple rubbing to calm herself enough to feel as if she could be rational and reasonable to do her job before she politely asked Reinhardt to let her see the child for a moment. He obliged, handling the little one with great care. The moment she held her in her arms, she began inspecting her from head to toe, silently documenting every single visible ailment she discovered.

The poor child was far too thin and frail, she was covered in filth, bumps and bruises, she had a few bald spots, her gum line was far too high, she had dried blood in her nose, her nails were cracked and brittle, her lip was swollen and cut and her gown had what appeared to be large bloodstains on them.

The malnutrition, the bumps and bruises, the lacking gumline and filth was understandable considering she had been shipped in a metal container for God knew how long and had been tossed around by the ocean, cranes, forklifts, traffic and whatever else was used to ship large containers with her food and water supply and her… _waste bucket_, instead of simply letting the child onto a plane and getting to her destination in one whole, healthy piece.

“What have they done to you?” she whispered before pulling the little girl into a tight hug, surprising and confusing her with the sudden action from someone still dressed as a divine figure (at least, that’s what she guessed since she hadn’t taken her Valkyrie suit off yet) before giving her a gentle pat on the back. Angela then released her and handed her back to Reinhardt while Lena quickly went to the cockpit to get them in the air, asking them to all strap in for take off.

She had fumed as she strapped into a seat, Junkrat rushing towards the front to make sure Lena didn’t take off before everyone was seat belted in while Reinhardt and Roadhog were cautiously trying to find a way for the little girl to be safely secured in her seat. After a few moments of them getting nowhere, Symmetra made a small booster seat and Fareeha carefully pushed the two aside and scooped her up with one arm before placing the seat down and the child on top of it. After getting her taken care of and taking their own seats, Junkrat’s voice cackled through the craft’s speakers, “Ladies ‘n gentlemen, she’s startin’ ‘er engines! Oh, ‘n ya might feel some turbo-whats-it due to some dumb Talon blokes comin’ our way. But no worries!” he let out a howl of delight as he then assured them that, “They’ll be in pieces ‘fore we leave th’ ground!” Angela felt the plane quickly turn and began take off as Junkrat counted down, “Five… wait, hang on a tick…” She heard the familiar click of the pyro’s peg leg as he quickly dashed over to put the headphones from around his neck onto the child’s head, seeming to squish it down to make it fit. “There ya go, knew I was forgettin’ somethin’.” He said, before leaping back to the cockpit and picking up the radio again. “Sorry ‘bout tha’ folks, but seein’ as they got a pretty big gun aimed at us, I think tha’ we should jus’ skip ta th’ good part!” he cried with a laugh as the child turned to look out the window, curious as to what was going on since she couldn’t hear anything, Reinhardt doing his best to make sure the child didn’t witness any carnage by placing his hands on the bottom of it.

As the soft click of a button being pressed echoed through the ORCA, all Angela heard was the sound of her own wild heartbeat… Until she experienced the powerful blast of his explosives rocking the ship and everyone inside of her before they finally soared into the air, the child clapping cheerfully as if Lena and Junkrat had given her a magnificent show.

Once they decided that it was safe to turn on the Autopilot, Junkrat had Lena join him for a bow when they reached them, the rug rat laughing and handing the mad bomber his headphones back before he asked Reinhardt if he was up for another round. The old man smiled and the four were back to their game with the same fervor as before.

Lena had called Winston and left a message while Symmetra had sent copies of the data to him before they got on the ship. He and Jack called back an hour into the ride back, just as distraught and horrified as the rest of them by the news. He informed Angela that he was still going through the files, but that they seemed to be of her medical history, most likely in case she was injured. They had been encrypted, but he and Athena seemed to get some information about the child’s history and health since receiving the data and would send her the bits and pieces they managed to uncover as they worked. She thanked him and Symmetra made her a tablet on which to look over the little he had uncovered for her so far.

So, after removing her Valkyrie suit and downloading what he sent her so far, she learned that the girl had been a test tube baby, born via an artificial womb on October 11th almost eight years ago. Her biological mother had been a Junker who was called ‘Cheshire’, Hyde had paid her bail, knocked her out, and helped themselves to a few egg cells from her ‘in exchange for her bail’ before flinging her back to Junkertown. They apparently didn’t go too far to gather the needed sperm cell, apparently getting it from a man who had worked for them in their engineering department before dying of cancer a year before the child was born.

Angela became upset at that. While having two people going insane with worry over their missing child had been a sad thought, it at least had a chance for a happy ending of being reunited once again. But the fact was that this child had been born and raised in what was probably a cold environment filled with nothing but experiments and pain without her parents even knowing she existed or that she needed help was more than heartbreaking.

And she had never even been given a _name_ at birth! Just a number. Her medical history had very little else to offer her, meaning that she could have had no problems when she was younger or Winston hadn’t dig those out yet. But there was one thing that bugged her…

She had gone from 011 to M011 when she was five. She had no idea why, but a little while after that, Hyde had performed several seemingly unnecessary and invasive surgical looks at the girl’s brain for the past three years where they had evidently just looked around and put her skull back together again. (Which could explain the bald spots if they had been sooner, but they had not) There was very little detail explaining what happened and why they did them and why it warranted a sudden addition of a letter after four years of just being another set of numbers. She sighed as she rubbed her temples, Symmetra had shown her the size of the files that were sent to Winston, it was quite impressive how much they had on her, but it was all encrypted, most likely to make it take longer for them to stop Hyde from whatever their goals were with this child.

Time that this child, and possibly others, might not have.

She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. ‘One thing at a time, Angela,’ she told herself, ‘one thing at a time.’ Focus on this child first, then when they found more, she’d worry about how to save the rest of them. Hopefully they were just doing the same thing over and over again, so the things she could do to help this child could be what those other children needed.

Okay, so anything on the stick was before she was put in that shipping container in those awful conditions, so there was a chance that she could have plenty of injuries now that would not be on those records, which was good, because she didn’t have access to all of them yet and it would give her a place to start. So after making sure the child had gotten a good night’s rest and a healthy, filling meal after waking, she would do a full examination to make sure that she was fine. She would do all the tests and scans she needed in one go and handle each new problem as it appeared. Once she had made sure everything she could find was properly handled, she would focus on the long term goal of making sure she returned to a healthy weight and try to figure out what those brain surgeries were for… as well as give the child a proper name and plenty of love and care! She smiled, determined, when she was done, this little girl would be the happiest and healthiest child the world had ever seen!

With her goals made and her resolve growing, Angela looked over at Roadhog, who was scowling at Junkrat and Lena, growling something at his fellow Junker for placing her new patient in the nook of his arm to sleep after he, Reinhardt and Lena had worn her out playing basketball (Reinhardt had handed her back to Junkrat once she seemed too tired to continue, gently wishing her a good night in German before he went to join Fareeha). Lena told him that she thought it was sweet how quickly she had curled up like a kitten in his arms before a thunderous grumble erupted from the Junker and Lena fled to the cockpit, smiling broadly despite how frightening she often found him to be, Junkrat covering his mouth to not wake the child with his chuckles. The pilot passing Fareeha and Reinhardt as she went back to her post.

The two of them were on a video call with Ana, asking if any of Fareeha’s old things had been squirreled away back at the base. Ana apparently remembered for sure that there were some old clothes, but before going on more about what else there might be, she then asked why they were needed and Reinhardt filled her in.

“And here I thought I was _finally_ going to get a grandchild.” She sighed dramatically. Angela smiled as she could almost _hear_ the teasing smile growing on the older woman’s face as she went on to ask, “Why must you make your mother suffer like this, Fareeha?”

“Mother!” she cried, embarrassed.

Another rumble came from the larger Junker, snatching her attention from Ana’s teasing and to Roadhog shoving Junkrat towards her, the lanky Junker saying, “Alroight, alroight, I’ll ask ‘er!” with his hands up in surrender. Angela watched as he hobbled towards her and plopped himself into the seat beside her, “Ask me what?” she invited.

“Hog wanted ta ask ya ‘bout th’ kid.” Junkrat elaborated, “Would’ve gotten up ‘n asked ya ‘imself, but ‘e doesn’ want ta wake ‘er.” She smiled, “I understand, I’ll go to him.” Junkrat let out a snicker, “Thanks, Doc!” he said before popping back up and turning towards Symmetra, only to stop for a moment.

“Junkrat?” Angela called, “Is something wrong?” He turned back around to face her, slowly pulling the headphones from around his neck and handing them to her, “Nah, jus’, jus’ use these on th’ ‘lil rug rat. Needs th’ sleep.” He said as he put them into her hands, “’Metra made ‘um fer me, but she said it’s adjustable, so ya jus’ gotta squish it a bit ‘n it’ll fit.” She smiled warmly at him, “Thank you, Junkrat, that’s very kind and thoughtful of you.”

He flushed and rubbed the back of his head with his good arm, “More loike I don’ want Hog ta be mad at me if ‘m bein’ too loud ‘n wake ‘er.” He fibbed with a nervous giggle, “Like havin’ teeth, thanks.” He then quickly turned and made his way over to a seat next to Symmetra, asking her what she was up to on her own tablet.

While Symmetra explained that she was requesting any data Vishkar had on Hyde to see if any of the compounds they had made for them years ago could be the ones they could have other children in, Angela got up and walked over to sit by Roadhog.

She hovered beside him and carefully adjusted and placed the headphones on her head. Once done, she snapped her fingers to see if they had gotten it on all right.

The child didn’t stir, so it would seem she did well, although seeing the girl’s two cowlicks pop up on either side of the hardlight that held up the ear pieces did make her jump a bit and need a moment to calm down.

Finally, she looked back at Roadhog, “You wanted to ask me about the child?” She prompted. He nodded and motioned to the seat beside for her to take, which after a quick thank you and a grunt in reply, she did.

“Well, I don’t have much, but I’ll tell you as much as I have, what did you want to know?” she asked.

“… If anyone’s lookin’ fer ‘er.” He said, lifting her up a bit with his free arm so he could adjusting the one she had been in a bit before carefully placing her back, all the while, being very careful not to jostle the child too much and wake her, murmuring about how his arm was falling asleep as means of an explanation for his fidgeting.

“That depends.” She said, pulling up the information they had on her mother, “Do you know anything about a ‘Cheshire’ back in Junkertown?”

He leaned his head back, in what she realized to be surprise, then let it sink back to it’s usual place before finally speaking, “Yeah. Old friend. Was with me when the Omnium blew, gave me ma mask ta help me breathe.” She could almost make out his eyes staring at her intently through the lenses of his mask, “But Ches ain’ one ta let anyone touch any kid in any way tha’ could hurt ‘um, let alone make one a weapon. So ‘m guessing tha’ she didn’ pop th’ kid out ‘erself?”

“No.” She confirmed, “The child was conceived through artificial insemination. They knocked her out, took a few egg cells from her and sent her back to Junkertown.”

“… Almost feel sorry fer ‘um then.” He chuckled, the pig on his belly seeming to nod in agreement as his girth bounced against his belt.

“And why is that?” Angela asked, a bit angry, this was not a laughing matter as far as she could see, nor could see any reason for anyone to be sorry for any monster who would want to make a child into a force for war.

“’Cause Ches loves kids, always wanted ‘er own. Th’ fact tha’ they not only ‘ad kids of ‘ers lyin’ around, but tha’ they were doin’ fuck knows what ta ‘um?” He looked down at the little girl, “Ches has never ‘ad a problem slaughterin’ anyone who so much as looked at ‘er funny. If she’s still alive, how’d ya think she’ll react if she finds out they took a kid or two from ‘er?”

“Well, probably just as badly as she would if she found out about all the unnecessary brain surgeries she’s been through.” She said, trying to hide how much she was liking the idea of a Junker woman tearing through scientists to avenge her child’s suffering. Because she knew it was wrong of her to want that, especially in her profession, but she was still a woman with very strong maternal instincts, and she’d be lying if she said those instincts weren’t screaming for blood right now.

“So they messed with ‘er head too?” He growled, much to her silent approval.

“For all I know, it’s how she got the ‘M’ in M011.” She informed him bitterly, he let out another growl before asking, “Can we not call ‘er tha’ anymore? Don’ loike it. No matter what they done to ‘er, she’s still a kid. Deserves a name, not a number.”

She couldn’t contain the relieved smile that plastered her face even if she had wanted to (which she didn’t), she was so glad he felt the same as she did about that and voiced her agreement quickly and vigorously before asking if he had any ideas for a new name. He seemed surprised she would even ask him until she reminded him that he found her, so it was only right that he should name her.

He was quiet as his mask turned to face the nameless child, pondering for a minute before turning back to her, “How ‘bout Molly?” Before quickly pasting on that, “Mean, tha’s what I read th’ code name as at first when I read it in th’ briefin’ packet… ”

Angela nodded, her eyes warm, “I like it.” she hummed, gently pushing a stray hair off the child’s forehead with her finger, “ Although, I’d say she looks more like a ‘Molly’ than the code name does.” She pointed out with a chuckle before changing the file name in her tablet from M011 to Molly, watching Roadhog gently rock ‘Molly’ a bit while still cradling her in his arm out of the corner of her eye as she did so.

Now that she thought about it, it didn’t really matter if this child was M011 or Molly, just watching how gentle and careful the massive Junker was right now with her, she knew that either way, she was in very good and very _big_ hands.


	3. Ya ain' nevah had a mate loike me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Junkrat wakes up on the drop ship and sees a few pleasant sights.

Junkrat woke up to an annoyingly persistent dinging sound from nowhere and groaned. Sleep was a rarity for him, even if his body was knackered, his mind often kept on ticking; new designs, new formulas, etc. The few times he did get sleep, he needed to make sure the area was secure (via empty landmines and bear traps around his bed, used to need live ones, but that would just cause more harm than good here) and when he did finally get some sleep, it usually wasn’t for very long due to needing to move or nightmares of horrible bits and pieces from his past.

So, understandably, he was hardly ever pleasant when something ruined his much needed rest.

He rubbed at his eyes with his left hand and squinted around for the source of the sound and found it. It was Symmetra’s tablet. It was on the table in front of him, blinking about getting some new e-mails from the suit who she was always talking to, only to begin to remember that, ‘Oh yeah, ‘m still on th’ ship.” Memories from a few hours ago came flooding back and he began doing a silent head count:

So, besides him, it was Roadie, Sym, Angel Wings, Reinhardt, Bitchy Pharah and the cheerful Pommy… he was forgetting someone, he knew it… come on, come on…oh right, and the kid! After mentally patting himself on the back, he strained his brain to recall where he had last seen everyone.

Okay so, last he remembered, Roadie, Mercy and the kid were across from him. He looked up and saw that they were still there. Hog was seated with his head leaned back on the headrest, the pig on his stomach moving up and down as he wheezed. Rat looked at the two with him and couldn’t decide if he was happier for his friend by the fact that Mercy’s head was resting against his arm, the doctor smiling as serenely as one who was sleeping on a bed of clouds, or that the kid was still snoozing peacefully in his arms with a small, warm smile on her face, still wearing his headphones.

It was actually kind of… what was the word? Endearing? Yeah, that sounded about right. Endearing.

Hog was his best friend (even though he had no intention of ever becoming so at the start) and as much as he probably believed that he knew Rat better than Rat knew him, which was probably true to some extent, it didn’t mean Rat knew nothing about his super sized partner in crime. He certainly knew far more than anyone, even Hog at times, would give him credit for.

For example, shortly after hiring Hog, he quickly figured out how to tell what he was feeling. It wasn’t hard. Junkrat’d had to pick up on reading body language and tones at a young age, after all, the Outback was full of people ready to stab you in the back or in the face at any time, so learning to know when to run was _very_ important. Hog had been a bit of a hard one to read at first, but after spending a little time with him, he could tell you exactly how the big guy was feeling and even know what expression was on display behind that thick curtain of a mask.

After a moment to analyze his friend’s pose, posture, and the sounds that leaked out of the holes in his mask, he knew that the big guy was happily sound asleep (he had to check, Hog had faked sleeping more than once and in his experience, it was always better to check). Mercy and the kid seemed pleasantly comfortable as well. He held back a snicker, they looked like a little family, all curled up together while they slept. He pulled his phone out of one of his many pockets quietly and took a quick pic of the three of them before stuffing it back into his pocket, smirking as he pictured his pal’s reaction to it when he showed him later.

Hog never indulged in personal things like his preferences in a possible mate, or if he’d want a family some day, but Junkrat had managed to figure out the answers, more or less.

The family thing was something that took hardly any time for him to discover that, yes, deep down, his large partner in crime did want a family some day… but for some reason, he felt as if his friend may have had one before… but he never asked him. Many people had family before Australia went to hell. He certainly had family, his parents were all he could remember and they had been hazy for years, but he’d had them, for however brief a time. So while Hog having been a husband or father before was a possibility, Rat never dwelled in those thoughts too much, it was too painful to think about. So he instead focused on finding someone that would make his friend happier than a lifetime supply of chocolates ever could. (Yes, he knew about Roadhog and Mercy’s deal, and he honestly would have accepted that deal too, if he’d had the chance. So he wasn’t too mad about it… except when he actually had to go to her office. Then he bitched about it.)

But as for what kind of person Roadie would want to settle down with, well… That part was a bit harder for him to figure out, but he managed to piece it together over time.

First, he noticed that Roadie seemed to like smaller women, which was probably for the best because Junkrat doubted he could find a woman bigger than him, but after a while, he was able to narrow the options down to somewhere around half a meter or so between Hog and a possible future Mrs. Hog. Then he noticed how he always seemed to stare whenever he saw mothers with children or women taking care of someone. So shorter, motherly, caring… Hog loved those weird stuffed animals that you’d win from crane games, so he guessed a soft, shorter, motherly and caring girl would be best… either that or Hog wanted ta have a kid or a pet. To be honest, he seemed fond of kids and animals (pigs especially) and since, women, children and animals usually ended up being afraid of him, he figured that helping him get at least one of the three would be good.

And well, when they signed up for Overwatch, a lady showed up who seemed to fill all of Hog’s qualifications just walked right up to them and told them to come by the med bay so she could get their medical records straight as soon as possible.

Roadie did exactly as asked, he went in as soon as he could, which told Junkrat right away who his friend would want as the lucky possible Mrs. _Dr._ Hog very quickly. Because while they both didn’t really like suits, they both also weren’t fond of doctors either. It wasn’t like they had many that had a speck of the skill Mercy had back in Oz (or if they did, they sure as hell never did them any favors), let alone the tools, bedside manner or patience so she was more like the divine figure she resembled when in her suit than an actual doctor to them (except when she was giving him a hard time about getting hurt, then he’d like a little more healing and a lot less guilt tripping). The fact that she didn’t seem to be afraid of him was practically icing on the wedding cake, at least in Junkrat’s eyes.

But, for some reason, instead of chatting her up like Junkrat was doing was doing with Symmetra, he never tried to approach her, except for his regular appointments and dragging Junkrat there every chance he got. Never tried talking to her or getting to know her or nothing! “Oi, when are ya gonna stop pinin’ ‘n do somethin’? At this rate, you’ll lose ‘er ta th’ bloody cyborg!” he snapped at him. But Roadhog, ever the gentleman, simply smacked him upside the head and grumbled out a, “Fuck off ‘n mind yer own business, Rat.”

He looked at the sleeping trio with a smile, all he needed was to find him some sort of pet and all of Roadie’s little family dreams would come true! He made a mental note to google if pet pigs were good to have around kids later before deciding to continue with his mental head count and think up possible pets and stupid names to give them to get the makeshift family later.

He checked the corner where he had seen Pharah and Reinhardt last, and there they were. Pharah was sleeping next to Reinhardt, who had his head leaned back on the headrest (much like Hog, but they were both over seven feet tall and these seats could only be so big) as he snored so loudly that Rat wondered how he had managed to sleep through all that noise. Okay, next he’d look for Tracer and Sym, he glanced around the area and saw...

Nothing.

Tracer was nowhere in sight, last he saw her she had left to steer this thing, and she was nowhere in sight, so she was probably still flying or at least up in the cockpit. He debated getting up to check, after all, his peg leg hadn’t exactly been made for stealth and he didn’t wanna go pissing anyone off by waking them up, especially for Hog and the two cuddling him. So he decided to just figure she was there and move on to his favorite lady in the room…

Last time he’d seen her, they were sitting side by side as the two brainstormed possible things that Hyde would need if hiding lots of children soldiers while waiting for the data she’d requested from her home office. Those assholes at Vishkar were taking their sweet time and they could only think up so many things before their brains were too tired to think of anything else to put on their growing list of possible things they should look for. Then they began talking about their more recent projects instead. Symmetra had been working on a new shield generator, since shielding each member of the team one by one could be a bit time consuming as well as difficult finding everyone mid-mission to redo them each time they wore out. There were a few kinks to work out via the distance, but the two tiredly tossed ideas around until she finally fell asleep, her head leaning against the side of her headrest, he remembered watching her slowly succumb to slumber before he finally surrendered to it as well…

But would she still be there now?

He felt something moving on his shoulder. He glanced at it to see that lady nuzzling against his arm a bit, still fast asleep.

Welp, that answered his question. Yes. Yes she was still there. And she was cuddling him in her sleep…

He felt his face burn as he licked his lips then bit into his lower lip hard, as to not let out the gleeful cackles he could feel bubbling in the back of his throat escape and ruin the moment. Looks like both Junkers had beauties on their arms tonight…

But just in case Hog didn’t believe him about the lovely Indian woman snuggling him, he took a quick selfie (D.va taught him how to do it really well and he had gotten the knack of it) with the architech before shoving his phone back into his pocket for the time being.

The Pommy popped her head in to check on the others, her eyes scanning the room from Pharah and Reinhardt’s spot to his, her pupils growing wide at the sight of Symmetra using him as a pillow.

“’S it mornin’?” he asked her as quietly as he could manage. She nodded. “Well, G’day then.” He greeted. She gave him a polite greeting in return before telling him that “We’ll be home in twenty minutes or so, probably should wake everyone up.”

“I got it, jus’ get us there safe, yeah?” He said. She gave him a funny look until he pointed towards Hog’s group. “Don’ think you’d wanna wake him up.” he guessed. Tracer paled a bit before vigorously shaking her head and thanking him before going back to the cockpit.

He gently nudged Symmetra awake, “Oi, ‘Metra, wake up.” She groaned in reply and buried her face deeper into his shoulder with a groan. Okay, that didn’t work (not that he minded, he could smell her perfume even more now and Christ, did he wish he could just leave her there for a little while longer! But duty called). How was he gonna get her up? Hmmm… the tablet dinged again, much to his annoyance, he picked it up and was ready to fling it against a nearby wall, when he saw something interesting in the top line of the email.

“To Satya Vaswani”

Satya Vaswani? Was that her real name? He mouthed it quietly, trying it out on his tongue while not actually saying it. He wished he could just say it, but back home, you had to earn the use of someone’s real name. They had already been here long enough that most of the people were getting comfortable around him at least (Hog still scared the shit out of most of them.) and those who hadn’t been in Overwatch until the recall (not him and Roadie, they were a little more protective of their real names than the others out of habit) were starting to ease into allowing others the use of their real names, so he figured he could wait a little longer before he’d get her consent to call her by it.

As thanks for the new information, he decided to spare the annoying piece of tech and quickly put it back down where he found it and gently patted her knee, “Metra, wake up,” he said softly, as to not startle her, “Come on, love, gotta get up.” She moaned as she slowly opened her eyes, looking a bit confused before she seemed to notice something different about the ‘pillow’ she had been rubbing against before looking up to see Junkrat smiling at her and giving her a small finger wave. She leapt backwards, nearly landing on her tablet by doing so, “Junkrat?! What?!”

“G’day.” He greeted, “Pommy said we’ll land in a few, figured I should wake ya so you could go ta bed when we got back home.” He gave her a smug grin, “Not tha’ I minded bein’ yer pillow or nothin’, but I figured tha’ you’d be more comfy sleepin’ in yer room than on my shoulder ‘till sunrise.”

She seemed to process this as he got up and stretched, feeling a refreshing pop from his joints as he did so, “I see.” She finally spoke, embarrassed “Is anyone else up beside you, me and Tracer?”

“Nope.” He said, the ‘p’ popping at the same time his neck did, “Figured I should wake ya first since you were closest, tha’ ‘n I didn’ want ya ta smack your head or somethin’ if I tried ta move while you were still crashed on me shoulder.”

“That… that was very thoughtful of you, Junkrat, thank you.” She said, still a bit bashful about the whole thing. He finished stretching and smiled broadly at her.

“Well, now that you’re up, I can wake the others.” He said cheerfully, “Oh, ‘n I think yer thing is on th’ fritz.”

“What?” she snapped, suddenly defensive.

“Yer, whatcha call it, tablet? It’s been dingin’ for a while now, woke me up ‘n’s been drivin’ me nuts.” He paused, recalling that most people assumed him to be absolutely batshit anyways (they could be right, but he wasn’t so sure), so he added a, “Well, more than usual, anyway.” With a light cackle pouring out of his mouth afterwards.

She quickly snatched up her tablet and began tapping away as he woke Pharah with a shake of her arm and leaving Reinhardt for Pharah to wake (at her insistence) while he carefully walked over to the little unit across from the four of them, okay, how was he going to wake them without Hog killing him? Hmmm… not sure yet, best start with Mercy, after all, he did figure that she’d be the one to decide where the kid was gonna snooze for the time being and waking Hog or the kid was dangerous to do first. So, Angel Wings it is.

“Oi, Doc!” he called softly, careful not to touch her and risk waking and pissing Hog off right away, “Doc, wake up!”

“Hmm?” She moaned, her eyes fluttering open, “Junkrat? What is it?”

“We’re landin’ soon, ‘n I dunno ‘bout you, but I don’ know where th’ kid is gonna be crashin’ fer th’ time being.” Mercy brushed a few stray hairs off her face with one hand and rubbed her eyes with the other as she slowly lifted herself away from Roadhog’s massive form. “She can stay in the infirmary until we get a room set up for her.” She suggested, she sounded tired, but she still quickly got up from the couch and picked up the tablet she had put on the table, it seems that one had been dinging too, since she seemed to be very interested in what was on it now, “I’m going to the cockpit to ask Winston something, could you please wake Roadhog and ask him to drop Molly off in med bay when we get back?” she asked him.

“Molly?” He asked, frowning a bit, “You guys name ‘er without us?”

“Yes, any objections?” she posed.

“Nah,” he said quickly, with a dismissive wave of his metal hand, “Hog found ‘er first, he gets ta name ‘er. Besides, I don’ think he’d admit it, but he actually loikes kids, it’s jus’, he also scares th’ shite outta most people, so he prob’ly figured tha’ he could never get near one.” He smiled at his pal, “Glad he found a kid tha’ don’ scream at th’ sight of ‘um, just wish I could’ve helped name ‘er.” She smiled warmly at that.

“Well, that’s quite nice of you, Junkrat, perhaps you can help him with her Junker name. Roadhog said that you’d probably enjoy that sort of thing.”

“Junker name?” he quickly repeated, suddenly feeling more hyper than he had been before, “This kid’s a junker?” Mercy gave him a small nod and another smile before excusing herself to the cockpit.

A Junker kid at Overwatch? He felt his smile grow so wide his lips nearly split at the thought of teaching her everything he knew about being a Junker without her having to go through all the crap he did growing up there! He shook his friend’s now free arm with eagerness, “Wake up, Hog! Wake up!” he cried excitedly, not bothering to try to be quiet since his headphones were still on the kid’s head and everyone else was already up.

“Get offa me, Rat.” He growled, swatting his arm and nearly sending him tumbling over onto his ass.

“Well tha’s a foine ‘how do ya do’!” He teased, “Pommy said we’ll be home any minute ‘n Angel Wings asked me ta tell ya ta put Molly ‘ere in med bay fer th’ toime bein’.” Hog grunted a confirmation that he heard him, not noticing him start to pull out his phone.

“Oi, Hog.” He called, snickering as he pulled up the camera app.

“What?” he snarled.

“Say cheese!” he cried, snapping a pic before quickly switching to the photo of him, Mercy and Molly and showing it to him, “Whaddya think?” He asked.

Roadhog carefully took the small device into his massive hand and pulled it closer to his mask, inspecting it for a moment before letting out a satisfied grunt and passing it back.

“Send it to ya later.” Rat promised as he plopped down beside him and the plane tilted down towards home.


	4. Three Months later

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's been three months since Roadhog picked up his plus one and as he watches Torb and Rat get scolded for teaching Molly dangerous things, he thinks about how far the child has come and what might come next.

Roadhog sat in the workshop and watched as Junkrat and Torbjörn sulked while Symmetra and Brigitte scolded them for trying to teach Molly how to build weapons, _again_.

Leaving her still sitting on the floor with a handful of wire in her left and a screwdriver in her right, confused as to why the lesson had ended so swiftly and why the bombshell she had been fiddling with had been taken away, “But I wasn’ done…” she said softly as she pouted at the tool and loose wires still in her hands, the cowlicks drooping a bit as if somehow in tune with her emotions.

Ever since Junkrat learned that the kid he’d found had been half Junker, he had eagerly brought her everywhere with them. (Except the bathroom of course) He had been teaching her all sorts of things he’d learned at her age: how to survive, how to steal, how to scavenge, and finally, how to build weapons. Torbjörn seemed happy to assist with the last two, but it seemed as though Symmetra and Brigitte would be postponing that last lesson indefinitely, and they almost seemed cross at Hog for not stopping them sooner.

Or at all, really.

Roadhog honestly didn’t care about her making weapons, the two eager teachers knew what they were doing, so she’d be safe and heck, if she had been born and raised in Junkertown by her mom, she would be at the age where she was learning this kind of thing anyway, and she was far more at risk of getting hurt _without_ the professional guidance of the other builders to teach her than she was with their expertise and instruction.

But, she wasn’t in Junkertown. At least, not now. He had a feeling that they would probably have to watch her leave to go live with her mother soon enough…

Still, at least they had been able to bring her here first, because if they simply dropped her back off at Junkertown after finding her, he doubted she would’ve lived very long.

Hell, her first three months _here_ had been rough enough, and this place was paradise compared to Oz.

Winston and Athena managed to get everything they could on her data drive decoded, but the restrictions were ironclad and too many bits seemed to drift off into nonsense, apparently. But despite all of that, they got her most recent health data from the chip, showing that she was quite fine, all things considered… When she had left, anyways.

Due to the matter of transport she had gone thorugh, she’d still had to go through several medical tests and screenings, since the data given still had nothing about those brain surgeries or why they’d stolen genes from a Junker. But it _did_ shed some light as to why she hadn’t said a word when found:

And it was because they never taught her how to speak.

Or read.

Or write.

She could understand what was told to her, for the most part, but she couldn’t participate in a conversation if she didn’t know how to form words. It was easy to guess how lacking her education was just based off how they didn’t bother to even teach her how to talk. And it pissed everyone off when they had given her a small oral test with the most basic information anyone would know and asked her to nod or shake her head to answer the questions.

All they had gotten for each one was a blank look.

She didn’t seem to know what they were talking about at all, confirming their suspicions.

So while Mercy had been poking, prodding and feeding her, Morrison had a meeting and asked everyone to come up with ways they could teach her and even encouraged them to also teach them their native tongues, anything she could pick up to tell them more about what Hyde had done and what they were probably doing now was critical. And so they all did, everyday, the only reasons they would be unable to teach her was due to going on a mission or being too ill to do so.

Since Roadhog had never been much of a talker, his fellow Junker happily took it upon himself to teach her how to speak, starting with plopping her onto his shoulders (being careful with making sure his metal arm never touched her bare skin) and walking around the base, pointing to everyone and saying their names and having her repeat it…

Although Morrison had angrily chased the two of them around for about five minutes when he managed to convince her that his name was ‘Captain Asshat’ (even taught her to salute him when calling him that). That took a few days to correct, but it had gotten a laugh out of everyone else.

After that incident, the two Junkers were assigned to only teach her to read for now, which had pleased Roadhog since he liked reading and thought it was cute that she’d run up to him in some of Pharah’s old pajamas, holding up a book for them to read before bedtime, her looking up at him for his approval after every few words she managed to read aloud by herself.

And, due to most of the first words she learned how to say had been learned from listening to him and Rat, since she spent most of her time with them and Mercy, she had picked up their way of talking and a hint of an Australian accent, this hint becoming a full blown Oz accent when she swore (Junkrat had been trying to teach her to swear when Ana and Mercy ended that lesson right then and there). Which made Junkrat really bummed when he had been forbidden to teach her to swear like a proper Junker…

At least until Ana revealed some old children’s books that had been tucked away with Pharah’s old clothes and saw some that he remembered from the brief, good part of his childhood and excitedly read them aloud with her, making a game out of it where he’d read a word and she’d read the word after it and he’d read the word after that and so on. He said it was to help her practice saying and knowing what a word was as well as learning to read, but he bet it was also to cement the accent she had picked up from them to make sure everyone one would remember that she was a Junker just like them.

Junkrat being Junkrat aside, everyone had found ways to help her learn something that a normal child would know in fun, sweet ways that they all seemed to enjoy. And, luckily for her, she was pretty sharp and was currently able to form full sentences in Aussie English and knowing a random assortment of words in German, Mandarin, Portuguese, Korean, Egyptian, Hindi, Telugu, Urdu, Spanish, Swedish and Swiss German. (Most of these being swear words somehow, although, how she learned the German ones was a mystery to him, because the only Germans around didn’t swear... Maybe Mercy?) She had some basic math and science down and had taken well to art and building, which was nice, because then he could leave her with Junkrat in the workshop and head down to the gym for a while and not worry too much about her being in there with the lanky pyromaniac, the stocky blacksmith, the snooty architect and the sweet armor smith.

But so far, her work had been more scrap sculptures than weapons or tools, but they had still been pretty impressive for someone her age. The one she had made of D.va’s MEKA for her birthday (after being told what a birthday was and why it was a big deal and why she shouldn’t have eaten all that cake that she barfed back up onto the counter after running around like a maniac for a half hour while on her first and very overwhelming sugar high. And telling her that it was supposed to be a part of D.va’s surprise party before she was sent to the workshop to make a gift for her to keep her busy while they baked another one.) had been one of her best ones, even though it _was_ held together with bent screws, glue, tape, paint, band-aids and bunny stickers. It was still a work of art to the now twenty-year-old pro-gamer and she proudly placed on her shelf where people could always see it while she live-streamed.

The women finally turned to him, still scowling as they pulled him out of his thoughts, “And you were okay with letting them teach her something like this?” They demanded to know, their accents making their words kind sound funny in unison, but he didn’t think to chuckle at it, too dangerous right now.

He was honestly too surprised at the fact that they were actually asking him this as if he were responsible for Molly’s well-being (He was used to only being responsible for his and Rat’s) to respond at first, but quickly pushed that aside and replied that, “If she were back in Junkertown, she’d have ta learn some way ta protect ‘erself. Learnin’ how ta _build_ something ain’ a bad way ta do it, it’s pretty positive when ya think ‘bout it. Better than jus’ teachin’ ‘er how ta slaughter a bloke.”

“But you’re not _in_ Junkertown.” Symmetra groaned, annoyed to have to argue this with him too. It was bad enough trying to keep Junkrat from teaching her how to swipe lollipops from his pockets in the workshop while he worked on his bombs, she didn’t need this ‘but in Junkertown’ stuff from him too!

“She’s still a Junker.” He said firmly, “It’s in ‘er blood ta fight. Just like it’s in ‘er blood ta survive. ‘N besides...” He shifted his gaze to Molly, who had gotten bored and was now doing one of the few types of work the girls allowed her to help Junkrat with: painting the outsides of his shells orange and painting the smiley faces on all of his empty cases. She was smiling as she placed another orange painted half shell beside her with a few others before grabbing a new one. She was humming a song Lúcio had taught her earlier that week as she started to work, happily swinging her legs in the air as her hands and face soon became freckled with orange paint, the cowlicks back to their usual position with their usual curl at the ends.

“There’s a chance we might not get ta keep ‘er when this Hyde shit is over. She might be shipped off ta be with ‘er Mum in Junkertown. So it’s better tha’ she learn from th’ best while she can.” He said, his voice lower and softer than usual despite his best efforts not to let his disappointment at that fact show.

As much as he knew it wasn’t right to deny Cheshire the child she had wanted for so long (if she was still kicking anyway, wasn’t like he’d seen her lately), he liked having Molly around. She was one of the few people on the planet who was almost always _happy_ to see him instead of cowering in fear (she and Rat were tied), and she actually seemed to prefer his company to those of the others. (With Rat as a close second)

It was… _nice_.

It was nice having her follow him and Rat around like a happy little puppy, laughing with him at Rat’s antics. It was nice having her clutch at one of his fingers with one of her tiny hands when she was tired and he was walking her back to her room on the girl’s side of the dorms after reading with her and tucking her into bed. It was nice making her smile and laugh by making one of his well-earned claw machine plushies dance on his belly and have conversations with the pig face on it. It was nice having her run up to him to show him her newest masterpiece, eager to know what he thought and beaming whenever he seemed to approve of them, even if all he let out was a grunt.

It was nice… But he wasn’t sure if he could stay with her, and even if whoever would decide where Molly went _didn’t_ send her back to Junkertown, he doubted that person would let her stay in his care. He had a rap sheet bigger than she was, hell, his rap sheet was probably bigger than as he was! He was big and intimidating, he had stolen and killed and wasn’t sorry about most of it (the innocent people that had gotten in the way, he felt bad about. But the suits? No. The bots? Fuck no.) He was a Junker. He doubted anyone would be dumb enough to let him continue to be in her life, even if she was one too. Probably stick her with people who’d have no problem shaming her for her heritage and do their best to make sure it never saw the light of day.

The four builders looked at him, obviously just as upset by his words as he was, “They-They wouldn’ do tha’.” Junkrat stammered, a nervous giggle bursting forth before dying half way on his tongue, “They wouldn’ send ‘er there, Hog, she-she belongs ‘ere. I mean, she’s one of us, roight?”

Hog let out a huff of disbelief, “Rat, they ain’ gonna leave a kid in a place crawlin’ with crims loike us.”

“Okay, so maybe we jus’ lay low?” He tried, giving him a hopeful grin, “Ya know, hide out when th’ bloke’s ‘ere ‘n…”

“Ain’ jus’ us with rap sheets.” He reminded him, “The cowboy, the ninjas, Lúcio, Morrison, Ana,” he listed, “’N who knows who else they might have a problem with. Might not loike th’ bots hangin’ ‘round either.” Junkrat mumbled something like, ‘can’ blame ‘um fer tha’ one.’ and Torbjörn nodded in agreement with him.

“They let Pharah live here when she was a child.” Brigitte offered, Junkrat perked up a bit and nodded vigorously, but before he could say a word, Hog shot it down, “’Er mum _worked_ ‘ere, Molly’s mum is in Junkertown, so they’ll prob’ly send her ta Junkertown. They like leavin’ ‘um with their mums, not random blokes ‘n sheilas loike us.”

“That is not always true.” Symmetra argued, obviously done with his downer attitude. “Vishkar took me in as a child and assumed guardianship from my parents with little effort after proving that they could better provide for me and could take care of me properly. Perhaps if Overwatch, not an _individual_, but the _organization_ of Overwatch applies for guardianship and we show that we can do that, there could be a chance she could stay here.”

Hog glanced back at Molly, who was still painting, her tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth, a little more stuck out than before since her tongue was pressed up to where she had lost a tooth the day before. (When he had learned that ninjas made great tooth fairies.) She noticed him looking and held up the half shell she had just finished, her eyes wide and eager for his approval. He gave her a slight nod and she smiled broadly before looking to Rat, who told her to leave them at his place so they could count how many she did together, telling her that she might beat her last record. She nodded eagerly and carefully took her work over to his part of the table before rushing back to her other finished ones and repeating the process one shell at a time.

Torbjörn patted Hog’s leg, pulling his attention away from Molly, “We should at least give it a go. Angela has some friends who work in Child Services, suppose maybe you can ask ‘er if we have a shot ta keep ‘er.”

Hog let out a breath and looked around, they weren’t going to let up on him until he went, and honestly, he actually was glad that they wanted _him_ to go, so he nodded. “Alroight, I’ll ask.” He huffed as he stood. Brigitte and Junkrat hissed out yeses and high fived and Symmetra and Torb nodded approvingly as he walked out into the hall.

“Where ya going?” Molly asked, poking her head out the door behind him, her Australian accent was still going strong, much to Junkrat’s obvious and his secret delight. Hog turned to her and smiled, not that she could tell, and replied, “Gonna see Mercy.”

“You okay?” She inquired, looking a bit worried. His heart warmed at that, “Yeah, just checkin’ something. Be back in a bit.”

“Okay…” she said, uncertain if he was being truthful or not and was probably going to delve deeper into this mystery before Junkrat called for her to come back in so they could see how many she did. “Think a certain ‘lil sheila broke ‘er record!” He called. She let out a gasp and gave him a big, gap filled smile and a wave before slipping back into the workshop to start counting with Rat. He could hear them go all the way up to ten before the others started singing her praises as he turned the corner, stopping when Molly asked, “Since I did good with th’ paint, may I _please_ learn how ta build a bomb now?”

“NO!” Brigitte and Symmetra said in unison.

“But I said ‘_please_’!” she whined, making him chuckle as he continued on his way. Junkrat was right, she was _definitely_ one of them and belonged here. And he was going to make sure it’d stay that way.


	5. Getting to know you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Getting to know all about you~

Angela sat in her chair, finding herself, once again, scowling at the images she had taken of Molly’s brain two and a half months ago. She had taken to looking over them when she had down time, the few bits and pieces of data she had on the surgeries laid out in front of her along with some articles on new breakthroughs in brain surgeries and several packets spread out with specific parts highlighted, hell, she even had her old college textbook out, opened to the section on the brain.

Ugh! WHY HAD THEY POKED AROUND IN HER HEAD LIKE THAT FOR NO REASON OTHER THAN TO LOOK AROUND, IT WASN’T AS IF THERE WERE MACHINES THAT COULD DO THAT IN FAR LESS INVASIVE AND DAMAGING WAYS NOW, SO WHY!? AND WHAT DID IT MEAN?!

She rubbed her temples, frustrated. This had been driving her crazy for the past couple of months and it would continue to do so until she figured this out…

She let her head gently fall to her desk, “What I would give for a distraction right now…” she moaned.

And as if on cue, there was a knock on her door. She pulled her head off the desk and called for whoever was there to, “Come in.”

She was surprised to see Roadhog open the door and walk in. It was surprising since he never came in here unless for one of his regular appointments, to drag Junkrat to his regular appointments, to drag Junkrat in after he somehow got hurt and was being stubborn again, or to bring little Molly here for her many appointments.

But now? Now he was alone. And he didn’t have an appointment right now, so why was he here?

Could it be he’d finally let her look into his breathing problems? (It had seriously been bothering her and he refused to talk about it) Maybe she could see what was under that mask of his? (It bothered her more due to her personal curiosity than professional curiosity) She doubted it, but hey, miracles can happen, it was a miracle that Molly was doing as well as she had been now, perhaps this could be another one!

“Hello, Roadhog, can I help you with something?” she asked cheerfully, turning away from the brain scans and her notes and giving his mountainous form her full attention.

“Yeah…” he paused, leaning in towards the scans on the screens around her, “These ‘er’s?” He asked. She nodded.

“Figure out what they did yet?” He inquired.

“No.” she sighed, holding up the photos of the top of Molly’s head that she had taken the day they got back, showing the bald spots and comparing them to the image on the screen, “I have looked through every recently published medical text that I own and have gone through several papers that have just been published that focus on discussing new brain surgery techniques and anomalies, but I have found nothing!” she complained, angry that she couldn’t figure this out. Roadhog let out a low hum as he motioned for the picture she took of the bald spots, after she gave them to him and he looked at them for a moment, he finally replied, “Well if it ain’ new, it’s old.” He handed the photo back to her, “When I was little, me Mum took me ta one of those people who stick ya with needles ta fix ya up…”

“An Acupuncturist?” she clarified, he nodded, “Memory’s a bit hazy on th’ details, but if ‘m rememberin’ roight, there’s lotsa points on yer head, which could ‘plain all th’ bald spots at least.”

Angela smiled, she knew little about that type of medicine, but she did recall that he was right on that front, “I do not know much about the details, but I do believe you are right, I will have to do some more research to learn more.” She quickly ordered books on acupuncture and acupressure points to be shipped to the base before turning back to him and motioning for him to take a seat on one of the med bay beds, “Now, what was it you wanted to see me about?”

He carefully lowered himself onto it, his mask facing the floor as he rubbed his arms in a nervous fashion, and, while she couldn’t be quite sure, she would swear that she could spot a bit of pink on the outside edges of his mask, “Torb said ya had some friends who worked in Child Services…was… Was wonderin’ if it was possible ta keep Molly ‘ere.” He murmured.

Is… is he asking what she thinks he’s asking?

He then gave her some excuse about how Molly wouldn’t do well in Junkertown and how he doubted anyone would want to adopt a Junker kid or put the time and care in to help her like they all were. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes and tell him that no one here would think he was any less of a tough guy than he was if he wanted to adopt a child that was obviously very fond of him and stuck to him like glue. So instead, she simply replied, “Well, yes. One would simply have to adopt her.”

“Even if ‘er mum’s still kickin’?” He asked, shocked.

“Yes. Even if she is still alive, I doubt caring for Molly as she is right now would be easy for a single woman anywhere, let alone Junkertown. So since her biological mother is unable to care for her, she can be adopted by someone who can.” She explained, “Even one of us.” She added pointedly.

Roadhog fidgeted a bit on the bed from that last bit, making it creak and moan under his weight, before rubbing the back of his head with a sigh, “But not me, roight?”

“You could.” She countered, “You just might have to apply for a temporary guardianship under the alias Winston gave you after you and Junkrat arrived until the Petras Act is repealed and your record is cleared, then you can legally adopt her under your real name.” She told him.

His posture changed, his body stiffening a bit, “I can do tha’?” he blurted, his reaction making it very clear that he hadn’t thought of that. And a part of her was glad that he hadn’t.

It was nice to know that he wanted to go about legally adopting Molly, instead of him and Junkrat going rogue or trying some half baked scheme to do so. But at the same time, he would be rejected if he tried to do so legally before his record was cleared, and that would break his big old heart. Which was not going to happen, not if she could help it. He obviously loved that little girl so much and was so careful and caring with her, and seeing him lose her would definitely break her own heart along with Molly’s and his own.

Everyone enjoying the child being here aside, the little girl had been helping the others become more comfortable with the larger Junker, much to her and Junkrat’s delight. Junkrat told her in confidence a few months after they’d arrived (and while seriously high on pain medicine after Hanzo accidently shot him in the ass with a barbed arrow while he and McCree were betting on which one of them had the best aim while drunk… idiots.) that most people were scared of ‘Roadie’ because of his size, his gun and hook, his mask and his ability to murder any fucker who pissed him off without hesitation, but that there was more to his partner in crime and his best friend, than that. He had chuckled while revealing that ‘Roadie’ actually loved gooey romance novels, weird stuffed animals, chocolate (she already knew that one) and refused to eat pork products due to thinking pigs were far too cute to eat.

These facts were baffling to her once she heard them, but then one day, she had noticed that on the spines of Roadhog’s books often had flowers or hearts or wedding rings on them (it was hard to see, his fingers were huge compared to the books themselves, she found that to be quite comical when she first realized that). She had passed by his open bedroom door once and found odd plushies sitting on his bed in a heap near his pillow and shelves upon shelves of books(he also had a weird machine near his bed, to help him sleep she guessed? She really wanted to know more about it, ie. Why did he even have it, but doubted that he’d tell her). And on days where pork had been served, she’d see Hog avoid the dishes with the remains of the cute little piggies and notice later on that Junkrat would often swipe more from the kitchens on those days, most likely to help with his friend’s growling stomach.

She had found that, while those facts had been hard to believe before Junkrat told her about them and she had started looking closer at the man. She had hoped that she could figure out a way to somehow reveal these things to the others to make them feel more comfortable around him, but after Molly arrived, somehow her presence near him had somehow helped bring these to light to the rest of the gang with no effort on her part.

It had started one night while she had been walking with Mei and Symmetra to pick up something from Winston when they heard Molly ask if they could read a certain book from inside Hog’s closed door. After reading the name of it out loud, “Steamy Dishes and Wet Dreams”, Roadhog quickly urged her to pick a different book from the collection of children’s books he’d gotten for her without any of them noticing while the three of them giggled uncontrollably from the hallway.

The next day, she had spotted him wandering around on his own and told him that she had heard the title of the book Molly had picked up the night before and, after enjoying how embarrassed he had been and his assurance that he would never let her read something like that until she was old enough to drink, had surprised him by asking what it was about and if he wouldn’t mind loaning her that one if she could loan him one of hers. He managed to agree, through what Junkrat later informed her was shock and disbelief, and over the next two days, he started swapping books not only with her, but with Mei, Symmetra, Hana, Zarya, Brigitte and Lena too. After a week, he had started up a little book club, with Pharah, Ana, Hanzo, Reinhardt, and Torbjörn joining them over cups of tea and chatting over characters and plot points. (Jack would pass through the dining area a lot during these meetings, and she noticed the two swapping books when he thought no one had noticed before slipping out more than once.)

Lúcio and Zenyatta were the first to spot the two playing with his odd stuffed toys after Junkrat had dropped her off after helping her make lunch before heading for the workshop one day and left his partner in crime’s door wide open, and the Brazilian DJ ended up dragging the entire base over to watch them, snickering the whole time while Zenyatta told him over and over again that it was best if they asked to join them first before simply inviting everyone over to watch something that seemed a bit private.

Apparently Roadhog had noticed them when they had peeked the first time and waited until they returned with everyone else before asking Molly if they should have a tea party instead since he didn’t have enough toys for everyone to play before revealing it to her that they’d been watching them. And since none of them could say no to her when she bounced around the room singing about having a tea party with everyone, completely forgetting to ask what a tea party was until after everyone had agreed to do it. It had actually been quite fun, having a picnic outside the base and enjoying the sea breeze, passing around tea and snacks, getting all dolled up in odds and ends that everyone had lying around their closets (with most of them loaning the Omnics of their team some clothes, like her loaning Orisa a lovely old sun hat she had forgotten that she’d had. She seemed to like it so much that she let her keep it, the bot hugging her gently while giving her thanks.), all of them looking quite silly and having a good time, although Lena had gotten a bit cross when she saw Junkrat wearing a stolen Crown Jewel from his and Roadhog’s ‘trip’ to London. It took Junkrat offering to swap with her for her feathered boa before she stopped scowling and eagerly swapped with him so she could enjoy acting like a Queen for the rest of the day. She especially had liked telling them all to keep their pinkies up while sipping their tea or it’d be off with their heads!

Torbjörn and Reinhardt noticed how Molly would cover the eyes of his pig tattoo whenever pork was on the menu and started having more side dishes when having pork in the main dish and informing him if there were pork products in certain foods or not.

These little pieces that Junkrat had told her and that Molly helped reveal to the others seemed to strip a bit of the intimidation from the man, bit by bit, and remind the others that there was a person behind the mask and make them feel more comfortable in his presence.

Speaking of which, she was still in his and needed to stay on task here.

“Well, child services would normally make you go through all the proper paperwork, a background check and ask to see how much you earn and such, to make sure you can provide for her before saying you can be a temporary guardian and being able to take care of her. But given the circumstances here are a bit different than what they are used to, one of which being that Molly is already in your care, they’ll probably want someone to keep an eye on you two until the application is completed and has been accepted,” she explained, hoping he didn’t figure out that she had zoned out for a moment there before going on to say that, “but I think I can convince them to let me be the one to do that.” She smiled at him, pleased to be helping the large man to become a father, “I can make a call now to explain the situation with Molly and ask them to send us the paperwork as soon as possible, I can’t explain everything to them, such as her being sold as a weapon to an international terrorist group, but I think…” Within a moment, Roadhog sprang to his feet and was inches from her. She watched in shocked silence as he wrapped his massive arms around her and gently pulled her close, “Thanks, Doc.” His thunder-like voice boomed in her ear, “I owe ya one.”

She gently patted him on the back, “It is my pleasure.” She assured him as he released her, “And if you don’t mind me asking, why did your mother take you to get acupuncture?”

He was quiet for a moment before letting out an embarrassed huff, “Mostly ta help with my lungs… but also ta get me ta stop freakin’ out whenever I had ta get shots.” He explained, his voice softer than it usually was, probably for no one to overhear him. Angela managed to keep a mask of serenity on her face while she fought back the urge to giggle as she tried to picture a man as massive and tough as Roadhog as a small child who would tremble fearfully when the doctor would pull out a needle to give him a shot.

“Did it work?” she asked.

“On me lungs? Not tha’ I can ‘member. On th’ fear of shots? Guess so. Then again, hard ta be ‘fraid of somethin’ so small compared ta yer possible death every day out in Oz.” He pointed out, then scratched his chin as he seemed to glance over at the scans, “Been a long time since I even thought ‘bout me Mum, surprised jus’ lookin’ at Molly’s scans made me think of ‘er…” His words seemed to evaporate after that, probably lost in memories of his mother due to thinking of ways to help the small child he was caring for now.

“What was she like, your mother?” she found herself asking, surprising the both of them. After a moment for him to contemplate his words and for her to wonder why she asked that aloud, he finally answered with, “She was a tiny woman, ta be honest.” He guffawed, “But she could stonker anyone who came ‘er way without so much as breakin’ a sweat. Thought I’d be small loike ‘er fer th’ rest of me life, but puberty had other plans!”

She laughed along with him, trying to picture a tiny woman standing on a ladder to give her enormous son a kiss on the head before sending him off to school, “What ‘bout you?” he asked, “What was yer mum loike?”

“My mother was gentle, but she somehow always managed to get her way.” She recalled, “No matter how much my father would try to spoil me, she made sure that I still did what I was told to. Once I tried to go to a party I really wanted to go to when I was sick and despite all my best efforts, I ended up staying in bed all day like she had wanted me to instead.”

“Sounds familiar.” He teased, holding out an accusatory finger at her.

“I never said it was a bad thing!” She shot back, still laughing “I learned a lot from her, just like Molly is learning a lot from you!” His head jerked back in surprise before tilting with confusion before she told him that, “She’s been begging Jesse and Ana for _weeks_ to teach her how to shoot a gun, but they keep saying no. Then, last week, Hanzo and Genji nearly had heart attacks when they walked into the training room and found her climbing on fully loaded guns on the weapon rack to reach the biggest machine gun she could find there! And I can’t tell you how many times Hana has scolded her for snatching her necklace chains and putting Reinhardt’s fishing hooks in them so she can have her own hooked chain like yours! She says that, thanks to you and Molly, all her necklaces smell like fish!” Roadhog threw his head back and laughed so hard that the pig face on his belly bounced against his belt, before asking, “’N how does th’ old man take it?”

“He’s excited, of course!” She blurted through chuckles, “He plans to take her out fishing as soon as he can!”

“At least ‘m not th’ reason she wants ta learn how ta make bombs!” He snorted through bouts of laughter. “No, but _he’s_ the reason she’s able to bring you two plenty of freshly made sweets when you’re both working in the garage!” she snickered.

The two continued back and forth like this for the longest time, laughing and talking and just having a good time, neither of them realizing how long they had been talking until Athena informed them that dinner was being served.

After taking a moment to let that sink in and realize how long they had been chatting, she definitely noticed the red outside the edges of his mask as Roadhog pulled himself off the bed and adjusted his straps and belt before heading towards the door. When he reached it, he stopped and looked back at her, “Ya think you can help me with some of tha’ paperwork? Be hard ta remember what ta write when yer pretendin’ ta be someone else.”

“It would be my pleasure.” She agreed. He let out a soft ‘Ta’ before lumbering out of her office, and, while she wasn’t certain, she would swear that he had been smiling when he left as she picked up the phone to call her old friend in child services.


	6. Kissin' 'n bets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Hog busy, Rat takes it upon himself to teach his best mate's little sheila all about kisses.

Junkrat checked in on Roadhog, Mercy and Ana in the kitchen as he grabbed a six pack of beers from the fridge, “How’s th’ paperwork goin’, _Mr. Buta_?” he asked, poking fun at Hog’s fake identity. “Fuck off, Rat.” He growled without looking up from the page Mercy handed him to read before she wrote everything down for him (since he kept accidently breaking the pens and pencils he was given with his massive hands). He leaned over to get a look at the large stack of papers, “Christ, takes all tha’ jus’ ta adopt a kid?”

“No.” Ana replied as she sipped her mug of tea, “It takes that much to _apply_ for _temporary_ guardianship. Normally he wouldn’t even have Molly yet, but they say that since the circumstances surrounding this particular case is quite unusual, they’d let the fact that we’ve had her this long without informing them slide.”

“… Fuckin’ hell, mate.” He murmured, pulling out one of the beers from the pack and handing it to him, “’Ere, you need this more than I do.” His large pal took it, grateful for the sweet release of booze, even if the can looked pretty tiny in his large hands.

“Ta.” He breathed as managed to pop the top with a fingernail and take a sip by adjusting his mask away from his mouth for a moment before readjusting it back into place and going back to work, passing the paper to Mercy and the two starting to go over the answers for that page.

Junkrat walked into the common room and made his way over to the couch, passing a beer to McCree, Zarya, Torbjörn, Reinhardt and finally Morrison as he made his way to the empty spot on the end, once settled in his spot, he leaned back into the cushions as he watched the ice hockey game that was playing on TV and started swinging the plastic rings around a metal finger. He honestly would have preferred rugby or MEKA fighting, but Zarya had the remote and he wasn’t gonna fight her for it (Not without back up, anyway). Plus she and the old armor smith seemed to really enjoy it. Reinhardt, McCree and Morrison were like him, it wasn’t what they preferred, but it was good enough to sip a beer to for an afternoon.

“Where is yours?” Zarya asked, holding up her own beer to indicate what she meant.

“Gave it up fer th’ greater good.” He said, thumbing back towards the kitchen, the plastic flying off his finger and on to the floor, not that he noticed or cared, “Roadie’s working on a pile of paperwork bigger than ‘e is just ta be able ta be able ta _apply_ ta be Molly’s _temporary_ guardian, hate ta see th’ stack he gets when ‘e finally can adopt ‘er.” The others winced sympathetically before Junkrat pointed to the TV screen and asked, “So what did I miss?”

“Not much, McKenna’s in the penalty box again.” McCree informed him.

“Not even fer somethin’ good!” Torbjörn complained, “’E tripped ‘n fell on another player! Clumsy Oaf!” Zarya nodded with a pout as she took another sip of beer, whining about a lack of tooth loss in this game so far.

Molly looked up at him from her spot on the floor where she had been drawing while D.va (who told everyone that they could call her Hana at home) and Lúcio sat on the floor behind her, chatting away while Hana played with Molly’s hair. “Roadhog’s goin’ ta be my what?” she asked as Hana finished putting it into tiny pigtails, her cowlicks managing to spring back up again, despite the internet sensation’s best efforts and far more hair gel than she probably should have used on the child’s head, making her mumble about ‘how the hell do they keep doing that?’

“Temporary guardian.” The German giant repeated, “In this case, Roadhog is applying to be the person who takes care of you for a short time until he can apply to be your parent.”

“Kinda loike Ana is Pharah’s parent?”

“Yes, kind of like Ana.” Reinhardt said, pleased that she understood.

“Then does tha’ make ya Pharah’s parent too?” she pondered aloud, the room going silent at the unanswered question that, deep down, Junkrat was sure everyone was really curious to know the answer to, he knew he was, but he knew better than to pry.

“That, kiddo,” Morrison announced, “Is something that only Ana can decide, and she likes keeping everyone on their toes. But Reinhardt is a father figure to Pharah, so I guess you can say he’s like a parent to her too, so you’re not wrong.”

“Okay...” She said, apparently needing to think about this for a moment for it to make sense before looking back up at Junkrat, “So if Roadhog is ma Dad, does tha’ make you ma Uncle or somethin’?”

“I guess.” He said with a shrug, “You okay with tha’?” She nodded.

“Good.” He smirked, and let out a laugh before saying, “Cause loike it or not, yer stuck with all of us now!” he teased as he reached for her hand to ruffle her hair, only for Hana to scowl and smack it away, hissing about how she _just_ finished making her hair look nice and for him to not mess it up.

“…I do loike tha’.” She replied shyly, picking up her drawing and holding it up to her face in an attempt to hide her pink cheeks, “I loike everyone ‘ere… even th’ ‘bots.” She added, most likely due to the fact that both Roadhog and Junkrat told her not to trust or go near them… but she did anyway, usually to sneak out to go out for little nature walks with the bots and Genji, led by Bastion, something that made him and Hog freak out when the found out and nearly wrecked them for it. It took a long shouting match and Hanzo and Mei volunteering to join them on these nature walks (as well as promising to stop the omnics if they ever intended to harm her) to get them to calm down… But it still made them nervous whenever they’d see her talking with Orisa, who had basically become her best friend, much to their horror.

Their friendship had grown due to both of them being fairly new to most things because the omnic was only a few months old and Molly’s own lack of education prior to Overwatch and the two of them enjoying having a buddy to learn things with. The two adult Junkers, the weightlifter and the blacksmith didn’t like it, but since Molly was still far behind Orisa in certain things, Ana explained to the bot that Molly needed to get extra lessons by herself to allow her lessons to continue without any hostility aimed towards Orisa.

“Daw!” Hana squealed as she gave her a tight hug, “You are just too _sweet_!”

“Still don’ trust those talkin’ scrap heaps.” Junkrat snarled, Torbjörn and Zarya nodding in agreement with him. McCree elbowed him in the side, “Leave it, partner, besides the bots here are probably better than the folks she was with before.”

“They are.” She confirmed softly before looking at the TV, where there was an ad for some sort of jewelry store where two people were kissing on the beach, she squinted, confused, “What are they doin’?”

“They’re kissing.” Morrison replied, stating the obvious.

“What’s tha’?” Molly asked.

“You’ve never seen people kiss before?” Lúcio posed, concerned. She shook her head, “I’d never seen th’ sun or moon for I got ‘ere either, ‘member? Tra-_Lena _had ta tell me what they was.” She informed them, correcting herself halfway through. Tracer had told all three Junkers that they could call her Lena at home, and it was still a bit hard for the kid to get used to it, it would seem.

“Okay, well, first, there are all kinds of kisses, alright?” Hana began, Zarya quickly hopping off the couch to join them on the floor, taking the remote with her and placing it beside her, “So first are forehead kisses.” She explained, “These can be used for family members and people you like.”

“But I jus’ told ya, I…”

“Not that kind of like!” Zarya interrupted, “when you _like_ like someone.” A tilt of the seven year old’s head showed that her explanation was not really doing much to ease the obvious confusion practically written all over her face. Junkrat sighed and slid down to join them on the floor, deciding to step in, “Okay, let’s keep it simple first, don’ want ‘er Papa ta get mad at us fer teachin’ ‘er too much ‘bout tha’. Plus it’ll be less fun ta watch him try ta tell ‘er when she’s older.” The others chuckled at the image of Roadhog trying to explain to his tiny charge about love, the birds and the bees while Rat picked her up (again, being careful to keep his metal arm on clothed skin only) and plopped her on his lap to face him, “Say, I gives ya a smooch right on yer noggin.” He said, kissing her on the forehead, making her giggle, “Tha’ tickles!” she revealed as she placed her hands on her head.

“Now that’s a family kinda kiss.” He explained, “Family can also kiss on th’ cheek if they want, but tha’s it, alroight?” She nodded, violet eyes sparkling with an eagerness to learn that he wasn’t sure he should be getting for a lesson like this. He glanced to others for help, only to get impish smiles in return.

Well _fuck._ If they weren’t going to help him voluntarily, then he’d _make_ them help him.

“Next are cheek kisses,” he told her, “Loike I said ‘fore, family can do ‘um too, but usually it when ya think ya found someone tha’ ya like in a special way.” He then turned to Hana and Lúcio and motioned to them with a metal finger that bounced between the two of them, “Oi, you two, show ‘er how it’s done.”

The two blushed and opened their mouth to argue before he smiled deviously and turned Molly towards them, her purple eyes sparkling like precious gems, her eager smile filled with missing teeth, hopes and dreams, “Ya wouldn’ want ta disappoint ‘er now, would ya?” he challenged impishly.

Hana looked ready to slug him, to rip him in half, to slaughter him in his sleep! But Lúcio? Lúcio was pink faced and seemed like he was about to man up and take on his challenge.

He sucked in a breath and pushed his shoulders back before gently grabbing the front of Hana’s shirt and pulling her closer, making her lean towards him so he could give her a kiss on the cheek, both their faces bright red when he finally pulled his lips away a moment later. The peanut brigade chuckling in the background as Molly bounced up and down on Rat’s lap and asked, “What was it loike, Hana? What was it loike?”

She opened her mouth and tried to speak, but nothing came out but a squeak, but Molly managed to get that, “It was warm?” Hana nodded. “Like an explosion?” Rat was half expecting her to roll her eyes and say something about how she was spending too much time with him, but instead, she nodded again.

“Oi, looks like ‘e did a good job, let’s give ‘em a round of applause!” He teased. The others clapped and hooted for them while they seemed to curl up on themselves, embarrassed, Reinhardt giving them an apologetic look as they did so and Morrison was not really approving of this, but all the while, he wasn’t doing a damn thing to stop it, either.

“Alroight, so that covers the first two.” He told her, “Got one more.” He glanced around and saw Ana coming into the room, still holding her tea. “Oi, Nan!” he called, his smile growing larger, “What you doin’ ‘ere? Thought you were helpin’ Hog!”

“I still am, but apparently Angela’s wrist is starting to hurt from all the writing, so while they ice it, I’m getting her a wrist wrap from her office so she doesn’t hurt herself while trying to help keep little Molly here.”

“Speakin’ of little Molly.” He said deviously, motioning to the little girl on his lap, who waved and called out, “Hi Ana!” The older woman smiling warmly at her and waving back with a soft hello before he finished with, “Moind helpin’ us teach Molly ‘ere a ‘lil somethin’ before ya go?” He asked, wiggling his eyebrows as a silent signal for her to join them, that this was gonna be good.

Reinhardt’s cheeks turned pink as her own eyebrows rose with interest before coming closer, “Depends, what exactly are you teaching her?”

“I’m learnin’ ‘bout kisses!” She said excitedly, throwing her arms out as if on a game show to reveal a fabulous prize.

“’N she could use a demonstration fer kisses on th’ lips.” He said, motioning over to Reinhardt. Ana gave them a cool smile before leaning over past the couch, “Molly, these kinds of kisses are for when you are older and when you find someone you enjoy spending time with more than everyone here, even more than Roadhog and Junkrat.”

Molly looked at her with wide eyes, apparently baffled by the high requirements for this kind of kiss, “Tha’s gonna be hard.” She informed her, “I loike everyone ‘ere _a lot_.” The older woman let out a laugh before asking Torbjörn to hold her tea for a moment before gently cupping Reinhardt’s cheeks and giving him a soft kiss on the lips that made the large man’s whole face melt into a goofy grin.

Once she let go of his face, Torbjörn handed her back her tea and Reinhardt slid onto the floor, still grinning like a love struck fool with bright red cheeks.

“Nice one, Nan!” He cried, Hana, Lúcio, Zarya, McCree and Molly cheered for her as well. Morrison rolled his eyes at them and leaned his head back to chugged at the last of his beer, and Torbjörn gave his old friend a playful slap on the back while keeping his eyes on Ana to teased her a bit for being so easy to convince to join in this little lesson, not that the gigantic gentleman seemed to notice, he seemed to be busy enjoying his kiss high.

“And remember, Molly, there is no need to be rough, gentle kisses can work wonders too.” The child nodded, eyes wide with awe at the wisdom she had been given. Which, hopefully, would not be used for a long time, or Rat would probably be helping Hog get rid of a body. (He wouldn’t do the killing, but he’d help with the clean up, after all, he’d expect Hog to do the same for him if he ever had a daughter.)

The moment was ruined when Junkrat finally heard the sounds of moaning coming from the TV and saw something no child should ever see at seven years of age on the screen, “Christ! Who changed th’ channel?!” he asked as he quickly covered Molly’s eyes with his left hand and Hana reached over to cover her ears, “What?” She asked as she pulled at their hands, “What’s happenin’?” Morrison spat out his beer and choked on the leftovers while McCree asked, “We get the porn channel? How come no one ever mentioned this before?” Ana smacked him on the back of the head as Torbjörn called out, “There’s a child in th’ room ‘n tha’s all ya got ta say?!”

“Zarya, you were the last with it, right?” Lúcio asked as he searched the ground around him.

“Yes! It was right next to me…” she paused, looking from left to right until she noticed it under Reinhardt’s rear, “Found it!” she said, pointing to the spot, “Under Reinhardt!”

“Hurry up!” Hana cried, “She’s getting loose! Rat, for shit’s sake, use both hands!”

“I can’! Me metal hand might pinch ‘er face!” he explained. Lúcio, Zarya, Morrison and McCree quickly lifted the giant German up enough for Torbjörn to grab the remote and quickly change the channel to a cartoon show.

But it was too little too late.

“THEY WERE KISSIN’ ‘N STICKIN’ THEIR TONGUES IN EACH OTHER’S MOUTHS!” Molly cried, bewildered. Junkrat didn’t know if he should be upset that she saw anything that had to do with what had happened on the screen or if he should be pleased that the people on screen were French kissing was the only thing she had noticed. That feeling was gone when she scowled up at him, “You said there were only _three_ types!”

Uh oh.

“That’s because Tongue Kissing, or French Kissing, is something only adults should do. He probably didn’t want to tell you because you’re still far too young for that.” Ana said, coming to his rescue… Only to friggin’ throw him under the bus by sighing and saying that, “But since you know now, I guess I’ll have to ask someone to help Junkrat demonstrate since he did neglect to mention it.”

Welp, he was fucked.

“_Oi_!” he called as he was about to pop off the floor, only for the other adult floor dwellers to grab him and cover his mouth, silencing his protests as well as keeping him close to the floor. Molly closing her eyes all of a sudden and rubbing her temples, still pouting.

“I’ll be right back. Junkrat, if you could stand behind the couch, please.” Ana called as she exited the room from whence she came, Molly slowly opening her eyes and letting her hands fall back down to her sides as the door closed behind her.

He groaned, but obeyed, all but Molly giggling at the thoughts of who his fellow volunteer might be. McCree even had been starting a betting ring with the others, with even Morrison joining in and pulling out his wallet to put his cash into the ring. Reinhardt finally snapping out of his daze as Molly walked up to Rat, her cheeks puffed out with anger at his withholding information from her, “Sorry Molly,” he said, figuring it would be best to give her a positive memory of him before whatever horrible thing that would most likely happen next, “Jus’ didn’ think you were ready ta see tha’ kinda thing yet.”

It took a second for the puffed up cheeks to deflate and she nodded, warning him to, “Jus’ tell me tha’ next toime!” He nodded, dread creeping into his stomach as his imagination went to the worse options of who would come in. A bot? The ape? The cyborg? It became harder to swallow as they each laughed out another possible option for the worst moment of his life.

“Hog!” Hana blurted before the others chuckled about that being a good one. He felt as if he was gonna hurl at the very suggestion and started silently praying, ‘Oh, please God, I know I’ve always been a shit, ‘n tha’ I’ll probably keep bein’ a shit. But _please_ _please **PLEASE **_don’t let Hog come in through those doors with Ana. I’d rather drown or freeze ta death than **_tha’_**.’

“Hey, Molly, ya wanna join in?” McCree asked before Reinhardt scowled at him, “Don’t encourage the kleiner Liebling to gamble!” he scolded.

Molly seemed to be contemplating something for a moment before she smiled broadly, “Yeah! I wanna play!” she said before giving Rat a thumbs up and Reinhardt shook his head as she walked over to McCree, “Don’ worry, Reinhardt! I won’ lose!” she assured him, “I got this!”

He seemed uncertain but gave her a gentle pat on the head and urged her to take him down, deciding to at least be supportive.

“Yeah, yeah, got any money to back up that mouth, squirt?” McCree teased.

“Yeah, got a euro!” she said, pulling out and waving a single bill that she had been carrying around in her pocket (he and Hog hadn’t taken her into town to get her a piggy bank yet, so she had been carrying that bill around ever since she got it) in the air in front of her as she then presented it to the betting group.

“You sure about that?” Lúcio asked, trying to give her a chance to back out, “Isn’t that _all_ of your tooth fairy money?”

She nodded before opening her mouth and pointing to the spot where the tooth had been. “Mercy said I’ll lose more teeth soon, so it’s okay! Plus, I have a plan ta catch ‘er anyway, so no worries!” she assured them. Junkrat smiled at that, looks like she wasn’t going to make it easy for the Shimada brothers to keep up this charade.

She handed her single bill to McCree and whispered to the others, who seemed surprised and uncertain while the cowboy gave her a knowing smile as she handed him her literal entire life savings, “All right, darlin’, it’s yer money.” He said as he stuffed it into his hat. Rat scowled at him, making a mental note to make the cowboy suffer if she lost. He’d need something to distract himself after whatever horrors Ana had planned for him anyways.

The doors suddenly opened and Ana walked into the room and motioned to whomever was with her to enter.

“Thank you for volunteering for this, Symmetra.” Ana said, “I know you have a meeting soon, but we do appreciate your help with assisting us to further Molly’s education.” Junkrat’s eyes widened and a broad grin curled up his sharp cheek bones, making eye contact with the little ankle biter herself and watching her give him a thumbs up (since she knew about his crush on her and had even promised to keep her eyes and ears open for anything that could help him win her love) before they both eagerly turned back to the new arrival.

Symmetra smiled and nodded, “Of course, how could I say no to such a noble reason?” _That _made his grin even bigger. Oh that poor, sweet, sexy lady! She had no idea what was about to happen! She seemed to notice him standing there, as if waiting and he gave her a little finger wave. “We need two people to demonstrate since Junkrat can only do so much on his own.” Ana explained before she could ask.

“Oh really?” she asked, a bit suspicious, “And may I ask why you volunteered?”

“Ya mean, besides th’ fact tha’ I’ve been helpin’ teach ‘er from the start?” He pointed out with a small frown, a little hurt that she assumed that he would only do something good for Molly if it benefited him in some way. Cause he liked the little ankle biter, he really did. If Hog didn’t love the child so much, he would have taken her as his own kid without hesitation, but he wasn’t about to take the hope of having a child from his best friend, plus, Molly even said that with Hog as her dad, that made him her uncle, so she was practically family anyways.

Symmetra nodded, “I did not intend to make you upset, I know you work very hard to teach her many things, I just would like to hear why you’re so eager to teach her … whatever this is.” She stated, waiting for another reason for him to help instruct Molly in some way.

Her choice of words made him cackle a bit, oh if only she knew just what she had gotten herself into, she’d know _exactly_ why he was so eager, but instead, he decided to simply continue to keep her in the dark. Why ruin the surprise?

“Well, I figure tha’ if Hog’s gonna be Molly’s dad, then tha’ kinda makes me ‘er Uncle, roight? So I need ta start helpin’ out more where I can, yeah?” He reasoned, “Plus, some things will be easier ta hear from me than it would from Roadie.” Symmetra seemed to accept this before turning to Ana, “So, what do we need to do?”

“Oh, you don’t have to do a thing.” She turned to him, “Oh, Junkrat, dear,” Ana said, her smile devilishly delightful, “If you would.” His smile wide on his face once more, “With pleasha.” He said before gently placing a hand on the Vishkar employee’s waist and tipping her backwards, gently pressing his lips against hers and sliding his tongue into her open, surprised mouth and began taking note of everything he was experiencing, because he had a feeling he wouldn’t be doing this again for a long, long time.

She tasted really good, for starters, very sweet with a hint of spice. Her lips were super soft and he could smell her perfume, oh man what was that? It was driving him crazy in every way he liked!

And as much as he wished he could keep this up all day, he kept the kiss brief. After all, they all had kinda tricked her into this and she didn’t like being touched without permission and while _he_ had _really _liked it, he knew she’d probably kill him if he milked it like he really wanted to.

After pulling away, he allowed himself to lick away any remnants of her he might still have on his lips as he quickly pulled her back onto her feet, her body stiff, she covered her mouth the moment he had left it, so he couldn’t see if she was a smiling or an frowning, but her cheeks were pink and she hadn’t started yelling at him, so maybe she had liked it?

Ana then spoke, “That kind of kiss is only to be done by adults and to those you wish to marry, remember that, Molly. Also, the dip is optional.”

Molly nodded, her purple eyes wide and her cheeks a bit pink as she whispered, “I wanna get dipped when I grow up too, tha’ looked loike fun!”

“Symmetra, dear, you should probably go to your meeting.” Ana reminded her, the architect seemed startled from her thoughts for a moment, then nodded frantically and fled the room, obviously pleased by the excuse to leave.

Junkrat happily plopped back down to the floor, with Molly quickly recovering to her normal skin tone, “So, whatcha thinkin’?” he asked her.

“’M thinkin’ tha’ if tongue kisses are fer people who want ta get married, does this mean Symmetra’s gonna be my aunt?” She asked excitedly.

“I hope so!” he blurted and gently pulled her close and was about to rub her head with his knuckles, only for Hana to swat at him again, pouting as she did so and motioning to her hair, “She says don’ mess up me hair, tha’ it took ‘er a while ta get it perfect.” Molly translated while everyone else chuckled that she was still unable to speak just yet. “Thanks again, Nan!” he said cheerfully as he leaned backwards to look at her.

“Well, I figured that since I got to kiss who I wanted, it was only fair that you get to kiss who you wanted too.” She said coolly before making her way out to the infirmary once more with a knowing smile.

Zarya jabbed at McCree’s leg once she was out the door, “Molly won the bet.” She reminded him.

“She did?” Junkrat blurted, releasing the child to collect her winnings. The others nodded, “We told her that the odds were against her, but she still bet Symmetra would be the one coming through the door.” The DJ informed him.

She looked up at the old knight, “See, told you I wouldn’ lose!” He smiled and nodded, informing her that she most certainly did tell him that and that she had done well to keep her word, making her puff up with pride.

“Alright!” McCree said, pulling a small stack of bills from his hat and handing it to her, “All yours, kid. That’s some guess you made, though. Remind me ta take you to Vegas when you’re older.”

Molly hugged the stack to her chest with one arm while she saluted him with the other, a few bills falling to the ground before Torbjörn asked her, “Whatcha gonna do with all that money, little missy?”

“… I dunno.” She said honestly, “It’s a lot ‘n I don’ think I can put all this in ma pockets.”

“Why don’t you use it to get yourself some new clothes?” Hana suggested, “I mean, you’ve been wearing Pharah’s old stuff for months now, maybe it’s about time to get clothes of your own.” She then smiled, as if an idea had dawned on her before looking excitedly over at Zarya, “We could do that tomorrow for a Girl’s Day instead of a Girl’s Night!”

“I will inform the others!” Zarya declared eagerly as she pulled out her phone and began typing.

Molly looked to Hana, “Are new clothes expensive?” she asked.

“Depends where you get them, but they can be, yeah.” She replied, “Why?”

Molly looked down at her new stash, and then at Rat, “Can you help me count this? I dunno how much I got.” He smiled and nodded, Lúcio helping them sort out the bills on the floor before counting all of it up. She then pouted for a moment, thoughtful, before looking at McCree, “Is there a chance we can go ta Vegas today ‘n come back ‘fore tomorrow? I have a feelin’ tha’ this won’ be ‘nough fer what they got planned fer me.”

The guys laughed a bit before Morrison called out, “They don’t let kids in the casinos in Vegas.” Molly scowled, disappointed that her plan had already fallen through.

“Well, in the mean time, why don’ we find somethin’ ta put yer cash in fer tomorrow?” Rat suggested, “I mean, Hog ‘n me still haven’ gotten ya a piggy bank yet. But maybe Torb n’ me can whip somethin’ up fer ya ta use until ya head ta town with th’ girls.” The old smith smiled broadly at the idea and nodded as he hopped off the couch, “Sounds good ta me, twiggy, let’s get started!”

“Can it still be a piggy though?” she asked as Rat got up off the floor, “’Course, we’ll even make it nice ‘n big, loike yer new Pop.” He promised as he patted her head, “After all, it’s gotta fit all tha’ cash!”

She smiled and nodded before Hana, Lúcio and Zarya began helping her carefully collect her new funds and stuff her pockets full of the stuff and even slipping it under the hair ties that held up her pigtails and behind her ears as he and Torbjörn began to make their way to the workshop, “I say we make it light enough she can carry, but hard ‘nough ta knock a bastard’s lights out.” He suggested eagerly.

“I’m thinkin’ we should also have a defense system in place,” the older man agreed with a smirk, “Don’t want someone stealin’ the poor girl’s money.”

“Course not, Hog’d kill ‘um.” Rat replied, his expression mirroring his shorter comrade’s, both excited at the ideas they were getting for their newest pet project as they both picked up their paces so they could complete it before the girls came in and made them take out all the cool stuff they wanted to put in.


	7. Insecurities

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hog finishes his paperwork and wonders if he can really be a parent

Roadhog had finished his paperwork and walked to the common room, finding his future little charge standing up with her chest puffed out, proudly covered in bills while Lúcio and Zarya were throwing more on her, ‘making it rain’ while Hana filmed it on her phone.

“Do I even want ta know?” he asked.

“Yeah, yer kid got lucky on her first bet.” McCree answered, “And Rat got lucky and got ta French Symmetra. Overall, it’s a lucky day for Junkers so you might wanna buy a lotto ticket.” Hog let out a snicker as he scanned the room, expected to see his boss blissful on his bum on the floor or couch somewhere, only to see he was absent from the room entirely.

“Where _is_ Rat?” he asked.

“He and Torb went to make her a piggy bank.” Hana informed him, not looking away from her phone, “and without Symmetra and Brigitte to supervise, it might _not_ be something we should take shopping with us tomorrow.” It took him a moment to remember Mercy getting a text while they were working about taking Molly clothes shopping tomorrow.

“Is that alright with you?” she had asked him after showing him the text. He had nodded, “Better if she’s with you lot than me or Rat. Someone’d prob’ly call th’ coppers on us if we went with ‘er into a clothing store fer kids.” He reasoned.

While the two of them had been told to be very good when going into town and to not draw attention to themselves, (which did not need to be said to them, they knew how to lay low and not get in trouble… they honestly just usually preferred getting into trouble. More fun.) He and Rat were not people who looked like they should _ever _go into a store aimed at children. They were dirty, shifty, scary and usually shirtless, (so many places gave them crap for that last one, you have no idea) and that’s not what parents liked seeing when trying to buy clothes for their kids.

“’sides, me ‘n Rat don’ know anything ‘bout girl’s clothes.” He pointed out, “So you all’d be helpin’ us out. Jus’ let me know how much ya spend ‘n I’ll pay ya back.”

There was another ding on her phone and she had looked at it and smiled like she knew something he didn’t, “I don’t think you have to worry too much about that.” She assured him.

Now her comment made sense.

He looked at McCree, “How much?”

“Yer girl won…” he paused and looked at Lúcio, “How much was it again?”

“A hundred seventy six euros.” He recited, “Mostly in ones, not bad since she only bet her tooth fairy money.” Roadie smiled proudly under his mask before asking Hana to send him that video she was taking of Molly, “I’m live-streaming.” She corrected, “But I’ll send you the link.” She then turned her phone around so the camera was aimed at her face, “That voice you all just heard? That’s her dad.” She said, motioning for Molly to come over and show a picture she had drawn of him, her and Rat to the camera, the trio surrounded by vividly drawn explosions and dead bad guys, one still on his hook, “And trust me when I say, your dad _cannot_ beat her dad. Or her uncle.”

“Nope!” she agreed, popping the ‘p’ with a pleased smile. Hana turned the camera back to herself and said, “This is D.va, Lúcio, Zarya and Molly, signing off!”

“Bye!” her co-stars said with a wave before she stopped recording. She tapped at her phone and, a few minutes later, his tablet sized phone dinged. He pulled it out to find two links, one was called ‘Money Styling’ and the other ‘the Mini Junker’s Making it Rain.’

“Money stylin’?” he read, unimpressed by the name.

“She didn’t have enough room in her pockets, so they attempted to style her hair with euros first.” Morrison explained, Hog letting out a snort of laughter when he finally realized that not only had the man been here the whole time he’d been there, but that his hair had been styled into two pathetic pig tails with tiny pink, sparkly scrunchies, “Eventually it just became Molly doing McCree’s and my hair for the internet to enjoy.” Hog looked at McCree, who pulled his hat farther onto his head, embarrassed.

“It would have looked better if you did not refuse a full make over!” Zarya proclaimed. Hog was now laughing hard enough for his tattoo to start bouncing, “Too bad Rat wasn’ here, he would’ve been th’ perfect distraction you could use ta get away!”

“Oi! ’M roight ‘ere.” A familiar accented voice called, making the others look up to see the two craftsmen standing in the doorway, a metallic pig with a curly tail under the lanky Junker’s metal arm as they joined them, “’N th’ most I’d let ‘um do is me nails.” He informed them, “Need a touch up anyways.”

Hana and Zarya perked up at this and Hana blurted, “We’ll do it when we get back!”

“We should buy many colors,” Zarya recommended, “For a nice variety to choose from!”

“We can paint a bomb on them!” Molly suggested, “Or make a big fuse going all through his nails!”

“Loike th’ way ya think, Molls!” he said, ruffling her hair a bit, pulling out a bill and handing it to her, “’n ‘ere, Torb ‘n me made tha’ piggy bank fer ya ta stuff yer cash in.” he said, handing her the metal pig.

“Just be careful, little missy, the tail is a laser.” The metal smith warned as he hopped back onto the couch, pleased with their work.

“Cool!” she exclaimed as she shoved the cash Junkrat pulled out of her hair into it. It let out a little oink, making her squeal with delight before she began pulling money from her pockets to stuff into the slit on the top, excited as the pig started to sing for her. He looked at Rat and saw the flash of his red tongue and gold as he snickered and thumbed back at Torb, silently informing him whose idea that was.

Hog gently patted her on the head before informing them that he was going to rest up for a bit and asking them to keep an eye on Molly.

“We got ‘er, mate.” Rat assured him. After giving a grunt in reply, he began making his way back towards his room, seeing Hana checking her phone out of the corner of his goggled eyes, she smiled broadly before proudly declaring that, “We already have ten thousand hits on the first video!”

“Seriously?!” Lúcio cried, excited as she passed him her phone to show him.

“Is tha’ good?” Molly asked as Zarya plopped down behind her and began to help untangle another bill from her hair for her to put into her new piggy bank.

“Huge!” Hana replied, throwing out her arms as if to show how big, “I mean, my fans _have_ been asking for more videos with you in them after those lets plays we did to teach you math and how to read…”

“Those were fun!” Molly recalled, “Can we do some more?”

“Sure!” Hana happily agreed, “How about when you’re done feeding your new piggy, we’ll go to my room and pick another game to play!”

“Okay!” the child agreed, encouraging Zarya to go faster as she carefully pulled another note from her hair as Hog left the room, still smiling.

He never thought he would have a kid, via adoption or otherwise. Figured looking out for Rat would be the closest thing he’d ever have to taking care of a child. But he filled out the application and he, or rather, ‘Makoto Buto’ (Seriously, Winston? Seriously? You gave Junkrat the believable fake name of James Fisher but he’s fucking Makoto Buto? Yeah, no one would make out his real identity easily with a name like that with his picture on an ID card! Come on…) would soon be a temporary guardian… if they approved of his application…

He fiddled with his chain a bit with his fingers as he turned the corner, Mercy had told him to answer truthfully to all of the questions (except for the ‘have you ever been convicted of a crime’ ones, best to just lie for those ones and move on), but most of his answers had to be severely ‘edited’ by Mercy and Ana to help his chances. And while they had assured him that he’d probably be approved, he still felt uneasy.

After all, he still had to provide a picture of himself, sans his mask (did not like that), and normally he’d have to send in his fingerprints too, but apparently Mercy told them that he had some rare condition where he had no fingerprints, so he had gotten off easy there. But he doubted the people at child services would look at his picture and go, “Yeah, this bloke isn’t at all frightening and seems like a swell guy! Let’s allow him within a hundred feet of a young child!”

‘’M so fucked.’ He thought to himself as he rubbed at his forehead, only to remember that his mask was in the way and groaned. He needed to get his mind off of things for a while, but he doubted continuing the book he was still reading would help.

It was a lovely tale that basically mirrored his own damn life right now, only it probably had the happy ending of the main character adopting a kid and ending up with the lovely child care lady who came to check on them and become a family while his application for temporary guardianship would probably be burned upon opening, ending his never-happening fantasy right there and then.

He considered picking another book to read, but had a feeling that when it came to it, he wouldn’t be in the mood to start a new story. He doubted tea would help, had plenty of that earlier (along with the single beer Rat had given him) and it was all caffeinated (to help him stay sharp and focused), so he wouldn’t be able to take a nap…

Maybe a shower?

Yeah, that sounded pretty good right now, to be honest. After Oz went to hell, he couldn’t do that any more, clean water was for drinking, not washing. So when he and Rat left Junkertown for good and ended up in Sydney, he’d had his first shower in years, and damn did it feel good. He could use something like that right now.

He made it to his room and picked up the shower tote he had been given when he arrived and made his way to the communal showers, nearly bumping into Symmetra on the way in as she appeared to be leaving, “Oh, my apologies,” she said, “I didn’t see you there.”

“First toime anyone’s told me tha’.” He said with a chuckle. She smiled at that too, surprisingly, even let out a chuckle as she swapped arms to hold her bag with, him noticing a dark gray smudge on the blouse, he pointed to it, “Guess ya ran into Rat?” he said, already knowing the answer.

“What?” she said, her face pink as she looked down at the stain and pouted, obviously only noticing it now, “I’m going to have to do laundry again today…” she groaned.

“Don’ worry ‘bout it, you girls are takin’ Molly shoppin’ tomorrow roight? Jus’ buy a hose ta chase him ‘round with.” He suggested, making her laugh, “I’ll think about it.” she promised as she moved to let him thorough, he thanked her and walked inside, ready for a good scrubbing.

He removed his clothes and walked into the shower with his mask still on. He kept the water cold, hissing as it hit his skin. While most people would go for hot showers, he was a large man who was often moving around and had spent years in the heat of the Outback and worked with a pyromaniac, so he was a sweaty, sweaty man. And the cold water always felt so good against his skin, it was refreshing and as he began to lather up his very large washcloth, he remembered his mother again. He remembered her pressing cool, wet cloths on his face when he’d come home crying after bullies would make fun of his short height and wide girth and gently wipe away hot tears, dirt and sometimes blood. She would always speak to him in a soft, gentle tone when he’d wail about always being alone, “Mako, you are a very sweet boy full of talent and I promise that one day, very special people will see that and want to be your friend and always stick by your side.” She would tell him, then add, in a sweet voice, “But until then, tell me who hurt you so I can wreck their _fucking shit_ for laying a hand on my baby.”

He chuckled at that, she _had_ wrecked their shit. She always did. Didn’t know how she always managed to be so small yet so tough, but she was. He scrubbed himself as his mother’s words bounced through his head.

Now that he thought about it, she had been right.

Although, the first person who ever immediately saw him as a friend was a mad bomber roughly half his age, and at first he’d never even accepted him as a friend back, he only saw him as an annoying client. It took a long time for him to see that Rat really did accept him for who he was and always had his back… (even though anytime they were in serious shit, it usually his fault anyway) He never took his silence as a bad thing, he just kept talking (and talking, and talking, and talking…) and he never judged him about his ‘softer’ likes and hobbies, even enjoying trying to bag a new plushie from a claw machine with him or asking him how his book was on more than one occasion and even borrowed one or two, usually returning it after a day of trying to understand why the people in it were acting the way they were, but he had tried and that’s what counted. He also always kept his beloved motorcycle in great shape and enjoyed going for rides with him, never complaining that he was going too fast or anything, he actually seemed to enjoy that immensely, which was great cause one of Hog’s favorite things to do was go blazing fast down a road to who knew where and it was nice having a friend who enjoyed it just as much as he did.

He always swiped him snacks from the kitchen when pork had been served at dinner to keep him from starving and when he had been pessimistic about being able to keep Molly, Rat kept trying to find a way to let him keep her, even offered to hold the child services place hostage until they let him adopt her if they didn’t accept his application after he told him that Mercy would help him with it. (It wouldn’t work and they both knew it, but they both also knew that Rat would still try it if they couldn’t think of anything else.)

Even when he found out that he’d been in the ALF, he had only been mad for a week before telling him that, after thinking about it, it didn’t really matter what he did back then. It wasn’t like he could change the past and it hadn’t been as if he’d ever let him down, so it didn’t really matter, he was still his friend and he still trusted him. And while he did his best to hide it, he was completely and utterly grateful for having such a good friend. Not that he’d ever tell Junkrat that, it’d go to his head so damn fast he’d be halfway to getting himself killed before he’d even finish talking.

He rubbed his fingers through his hair as he washed it, chuckling. After the omnium exploded, he felt as if he could never be close to anyone ever again after what he had helped cause. But Junkrat, Molly, and now everyone else here was making that feeling go away. He was wrapped up in this odd Overwatch family, and he actually was happy that Rat hadn’t listened to him when he said not to take this gig. He’d been right, this place was good for them, not just to go legit, but for so many other things too, he just hadn’t seen it at the time.

He toweled off, feeling a lot better about everything before getting dressed again and walking back to his room to get his book.

“Hog! Hog!” he’d heard a familiar voice call as he turned around and looked down at the little girl by his feet, holding her new piggy bank up for him, “Look! Look! Hana gave me a sticker to put on ma new piggy bank!” she said excitedly, pointing to the bunny logo that the MEKA pilot used for her online persona on it.

“Looks noice.” He said, making her smile proudly as she admired the new addition on her newest possession before telling him that she was going to put it in her room and running over to it.

She stopped in front of the door, hesitant, before turning back to him, “Do ya _really_ want ta be ma Dad?” she asked so softly he could hardly hear it, but he could tell based on her posture and expression that she was… was she nervous?… did she seriously think no one would want her, just like what he had been thinking about himself for years now?

He walked over to her, knelt down, smiling under his mask as he gently pulled her into a hug, “’Course I do.” He assured her as she carefully put her piggy bank on the floor before hugging him back, shaking a bit as he felt hot tears against his skin. He gave her a very light squeeze and murmured soft things to her, letting her let out all the pent up fear of rejection she had probably been holding onto all day, before lifting her up and picking up the metal swine on the floor before asking, “So, did Torb tell ya how ta start th’ laser?”

She wiped at her face and nodded, “Yeah, he said tha’ it starts automatically when ya go for th’ plug at th’ bottom. Th’ real way ta open it is ta press it’s nose ‘n bills come outta it’s mouth.” She pressed the nose in and the mouth opened, letting a few bills poke out, “Fer change ya poke one of th’ little hooves.” She added as she pulled out the euros and closed it’s mouth before shoving the cash back in through the slot on the top, giggling at the oink her pig sang when she did.

“Huh.” He said as he stood up and walked her to her room, “So, wanna explain ta me how Rat managed ta kiss Symmetra ‘n what you bet on ta get this much cash?” The ankle biter’s face lit up as she began telling him from the beginning, “Well, it all started when...”


	8. Well that went to shit fast

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The women of Overwatch decide that it's about time that they take Molly into town to get some clothing and toys of her own.
> 
> It doesn't go to plan.

Angela and the other girls had a long chat in the conference room after Molly ran towards Roadhog’s room to read a book before bedtime, which had been later than usual due to needing to scrub far too much hair gel out of her hair at bath time. (Something Hana insisted was needed, “Those friggin’ cowlicks of hers are impossible to keep down!”) This meeting was a continuation of a thought that Ana had brought up to them at dinner that they hadn’t considered about their plan to take the girl shopping tomorrow;

The fact that, according to Molly, she had lived in that safe for her whole life before arriving here and had only been let out into a lab to occasionally pour out her waste bucket, eat and be poked and prodded while she was still under Hyde’s ‘care’.

Meaning that before coming to Overwatch, she’d never been outside her safe nor whatever lab she had been in before.

Now, since arriving here, she had been outside for nature walks and been around the compound loads of times, but she had never been to town and had never been to shops or a market place or been exposed to so many strangers at one time before. (When she had arrived, they introduced her to a few more of them each day as to not overwhelm her all at once.) So they decided to head out early, go to a tiny, hole in the wall kind of place for lunch, and see how she was feeling then, if she was okay, they’d take it one shop at a time. If not, they’d head home. They also decided to start with clothes shops and then move on to shops to pick out new bedding, pillows, toys, and things to decorate her room with if she was up for it.

Zarya had told them the amount little Molly had won, and after having Athena pull up prices of reasonably priced children’s clothes, it probably wouldn’t be enough for more than maybe two or three outfits. And while she had been fine in Fareeha’s old clothes, they were already old and worn, so it didn’t take much for holes or tears to start to appear, let alone the kind of running around she’d do with them all. Not to mention that Mercy had only bought a single pack of little girl’s underwear for her shortly after she arrived and had been too busy addressing to her health to purchase another (and Winston felt uncomfortable putting ‘little girl’s underwear’ on the supply list), but since only having six pairs, laundry had needed to be done more often and they usually forgot since she had so little of it, meaning that roughly once a week, the girl was sitting around the shower room wrapped in a towel waiting for her clothes to finish washing and dry.

So, despite Hog’s earlier request to simply keep the receipts from the places they went today and he would pay them back later, (which she did tell them and they did think it was cute how he was being such a responsible daddy already) all the women there decided to simply bite the bullet on this one and pay for her clothes with their own money and let her save her money to buy toys or craft supplies or things for her room.

“We should also take note of things she finds she likes but cannot afford.” Symmetra suggested, “We might be able to make them ourselves and allow her to keep more of her life savings.”

Mercy hadn’t thought of the meager funds Molly had as being her life savings, but, when the architect had called them that, she realized that, being made to become a human weapon, they probably would not have social security numbers (although Winston, child services and a few other people were currently working on it, along with giving her a proper certificate of live birth while trying to figure out her parent’s names (or in her mother’s case, her real name)) or bank accounts or anything. She had literally had a single Euro to her name until she won that bet earlier today and gained 175 more. But that didn’t change the fact that the child only had a little over 200 dollars in cash, a piggy bank, some old hand-me-down clothes, and a few things the others had given her, like a dried flower or two, some tiny hard light tools, a handheld and a few games, a few old toys and books, some traps that Junkrat and Roadhog had set up around her room (to ‘keep her safe’ when all she could see the massive bear traps ever doing was ‘take her leg off’), some rocks she found and brought home, a hollowed out mine filled with lollipops Rat gave her, one of Hog’s odd plushies and a few fishing hooks from Reinhardt to her name, and nothing else. She was right, they should keep track of anything that interested her that they could make at home to save as much of her money as possible.

“Speaking of her money, does anyone have a spare purse or something she can use?” Hana asked, “Because I don’t think she should bring her new piggy bank with her. Torb said it had a laser and I don’t want to know what might happen if someone accidently sets it off.”

The women nodded solemnly, the two women most often in the workshop looking eager to discuss what should and what should _not_ go on objects for children with their fellow builders as soon as possible.

Mei said she had a spare purse that she could let her borrow, suggesting that they find her one while they were out before they discussed a few more points and ended the meeting, deciding to leave that morning at around nine in the morning. So early enough that food vendors wouldn’t be crowded, but early enough that the shops would have less shoppers than they might at noon or so on a late summer day.

The next morning, Angela had gotten up at seven am, gotten dressed and quickly ate and got ready for the day, double checking her purse for her van keys and her wallet before waiting for the other girls in the hanger at 7:30.

They trickled in either by themselves or in twos, Orisa, Bastion and Ganymede welcomed them into the hanger one by one, well, Orisa did, Bastion beeped and his bird chirped, but she assumed that Bastion was greeting them based on him waving at them when he had done so. Molly being the last to arrive with Roadhog and Junkrat, looking a bit put out to have to use Mei’s spare purse than her cool laser piggy bank before being loaded into the car, “Wait, isn’ Orisa comin’ too?” she asked when the others hopped into Angela’s and Hana’s cars. The rest of them gave her a curious look, only for her to sheepishly ask, “Well, it’s a girl’s day, roight? Isn’ she a girl too?”

Orisa smiled and nodded, “Efi designed me as a female, so yes, I am technically a girl!” she said cheerfully.

“Do we hav’ anythin’ big enough ta take ‘er into town with?” Lena asked.

“I believe we have a truck big enough for her.” Ana recalled, “I’ll get the keys from Winston. I’ll be right back.” She assured them, and sure enough, it took her fifteen minutes to get the keys and then the girls were back on track… A half an hour late, but still, Molly had been right, Orisa was a girl too, and it would have been wrong to not include her.

The group walked through the streets, Molly sitting on her friend’s shoulder as they excitedly pointed stuff out to each other, chattering away as they walked towards their first shop.

Orisa had been too big to enter with them, which was surprising since the store itself was enormous on the inside, but Molly promised to show her the items the others helped her pick after trying them on. After being told she couldn’t leave the shop with their clothes without paying by an employee, she then paused and looked at the display window at the front of the shop, “So if I don’ leave with yer stuff ‘fore payin’, it’s not a problem, then?” she asked. Upon receiving confirmation, she smiled and thanked the worker for the information before walking over to Angela and joining her in looking at the clothes in the stacks on a nearby table.

Molly’d had no idea what kind of clothes she wanted, but she instantly became excited at the sight of a pair of tan camouflage cargo pants and held them up eagerly to her, “It’s loike th’ ones Hog ‘n Rat got!” she exclaimed.

Symmetra sighed, “What is with you three and camouflage pants?” Angela began to chuckle with Zarya and Ana as Molly explained that, “It’s a Junker thing, you wouldn’ understand.”

“I am not sure that I’d want to.” Symmetra replied.

“Says the one who kissed Junkrat yesterday!” Hana teased, making her flush while she, Mei, Lena, Fareeha and Brigitte looked at her with shock before Fareeha asked, “Have you completely lost it?”

“Oi!” Molly cried, defensive of her ‘Uncle Rat’.

“Fareeha!” Angela scolded in unison with Ana, who went on to say that, “That is a horrible thing to say and I raised you better than that!” Fareeha winced and mumbled out an apology before Brigitte moved the conversation back to the gossip at hand and said, “I did not know you were _that_ fond of him to kiss him.”

“He kissed me!” she insisted, embarrassed and uncomfortable as she began refolding the clothes Molly had pulled out to get a better look at before leaving them there. Her fingers trembling as she seemed to try to give herself some sort of control over anything happening right now.

“But you didn’t stop him!” Zarya reminded her, “Even when he used his tongue!” Angela felt her jaw drop, and saw that she wasn’t alone, the ones who were just as unaware of this incident were just as shocked as she was.

“I was in shock!” she said, pointing to Ana, “Ana told me that she needed my help with Molly’s education, I didn’t expect him to do _that_!”

“But you loiked it.” Molly said as she rubbed her temple with one hand and held the pants with the other, her tone calm and her eyes closed, “You loiked it ‘n ya loike him. ‘N you want to…” she paused, confused, “map all th’ constellations of his freckles, birthmarks ‘n moles with yer hands?… But only if he’s clean.” she then opened her eyes and pouted, “What does tha’ even mean?” she asked, bewildered, rubbing her head while Symmetra looked both surprised and mortified while the others giggled uncontrollably and Lena smiled, “I didn’t know freckles were your thing too!” she squealed as she grabbed Symmetra’s sleek metal arm, “I’ve been feelin’ all by my lonesome whenever I talk about how cute Emily’s are, though they’re more on her shoulders than on her face or chest!”

“That’s because you say everything about Emily is cute or pretty or amazing.” Mei reminded her flatly, “Like her red hair, her eyes, her smile…” Lena smiled happily, “They are!” she confirmed, the other females in the room starting up a conversation about their own little guilty pleasures to make the architect feel a bit better about her crush and slight kink being revealed by a child as the good doctor looked over at the young blonde still stroking her temples.

“Are you alright?” Angela asked her, concerned about why she was rubbing her head so much.

“Foine, jus’ a headache.” The youngest junker explained, pouting at her misfortune to get one while out to have fun as she continued to rub her forehead, “Get ‘um a lot. Had a small one yesterday too, but it went away pretty quick, this one’ll probably be loike tha’ too.”

She suddenly remembered that in her new books, both of them claimed that the spots that had been shaved on her head were ones to help with _headaches_.

“Did you have them before you had the haircuts too?” she asked, trying to gather more information for a possible theory while the others resumed looking for clothes for her little patient.

“Yeah, those were much worse ‘n lasted a long toime.” She revealed, “Be days where I was in too much pain ta do much other than drag me bucket close ‘nough ta yak in without needed ta move too much ‘n curlin’ up on my mattress ta cry.”

“They didn’t give you pain killers?” She asked, surprised that they let her suffer like that without even trying to at least lessen her pain at all.

“Didn’ work very well or fer very long ‘n I usually jus’ spewed ‘um back up. No point wastin’ ‘um when ya knew it wouldn’ work.” Molly explained, the words sounding far too cold for Angela’s liking as she watched as Molly’s fingers stopped and her expression relaxed as the pain seemed to no longer be troubling her. “’N it’s not hurtin’ anymore, so I’m okay now.”

“Alright, but you let me know if it starts hurting again.” She said.

“Can do!” the child said with a salute before Lena held up a pair of what seemed to be black combat boots for kids, “If yer gonna dress like them, you’re gonna need these!”

She gasped and ran over to her, admiring the shoes with wide, sparkling eyes as Zarya and Mei began picking out tank tops for her to choose from, she picked a couple that they all could have easily guessed, one with a pig face, another with a smiley face, but she picked a few that they didn’t expect. She picked a white one with a single lady bug on the front, she picked a dark blue one with yellow green lights from fireflies, she picked one with gears, she picked one with an engine and a few more insect related ones… which actually shouldn’t have been _that_ surprising since she often brought little creepy crawlies back with her from her nature walks to show everyone before letting them back outside (she had been asked not to show Hana and Mei the insects anymore after an incident where she chased them around the base with a giant slug in her palms shouting, “Come back! It actually feels less slimey than it looks!”). She had told her at her last appointment all about how Athena, Orisa, Bastion (with Zenyatta translating, of course) and Winston had been teaching her more about fireflies so she could try to make one out of metal that could fly and glow like a real one to help the others during their missions, to bring them light in the darkness without seeming out of place, since she thought it would be mean to take one away from it’s home to do that. “I wouldn’ want someone ta take me from ‘ere, so it’s only fair tha’ I don’ do tha’ to others fer more than a visit.” She had said, “But only if their home is good loike ‘ere, if not, I’m bringin’ them home ta stay.” She then crossed her arms, determined.

Angela and Fareeha picked out a few more pairs of the pants she liked in different colors before grabbing cute socks for her while Hana and Brigitte picked out a few sweatshirts and belts and Symmetra and Ana looked at more formal wear for when one of the child services people came to visit or if they were all invited for a formal event. (They doubted that would actually happen, but they really wanted to look through the cute kiddy dresses and no one was going to stop them so they perused freely.)

Eventually they had her try the everyday outfits they had picked out for her on and watched as she hop out the dressing room, listen to what they thought and would run up to the display window, spot her friend and ask her what she thought, getting happy, simple compliments before skipping back to the dressing room. The rest of them standing by the entrance of the dressing room to watch her run back and forth, Hana starting to film it, “So Hog and Rat can see it later!” she said.

After trying on all the everyday options, Symmetra handed her the first dress she and Ana had agreed on, which Molly eyed with a determined pout, “Does it have pockets?” she asked critically.

“Yes.” She and Ana replied in unison, “We picked out some skirts with pockets too.” The older woman added as the girl happily took the white dress with red, pink and purple flowers, a small white sweater and a pair of white Mary Janes Lena had picked to go with it into the dressing room.

“Do I hafta wear socks with these?” she asked from the dressing room.

“You don’t have to unless it’s cold.” Brigitte informed her.

It was quiet in the dressing room as they heard nothing but frustrated mumbling, “Do you need help in there?” Hana asked.

“… maybe.” She replied softly. The others chuckling as Hana stopped recording, stuffed her cell in her pocket and went inside and began to help her, “Seriously? We told you before; clothes first, then shoes.”

“I don’ think th’ shoes fit anyway.” Molly replied bashfully, obviously a bit embarrassed that she had forgotten.

“That’s because you’re putting them on wrong.” Hana informed her.

“Then which hole ‘m I supposed ta put my foot in?” She whined, obviously frustrated.

“Clothes first, then shoes.” Hana repeated.

The others chuckled a bit from outside when the sound of a bell came from the entrance, Angela glanced over towards the entrance via the doorway to the changing room, curious, and watched as a woman came into the store alone and, after turning down help from the staff, went to a stack near the entrance and began shifting through a stack of boys’ shirts.

Something stirred in her gut, telling her that there was something wrong with this woman for some reason, but she couldn’t figure out what it was and why she felt this way. Zarya peeked out from behind her, wondering as to what she was looking at that was so important.

“Where is her child?” Zarya asked, catching the other women’s attention (except for Hana, who was now asking, “How did you get this sweater on backwards _and_ upside down?” and Molly blurting, “I dunno what ‘m doin’, tha’s _how_!” in reply.) and leading them to peek out with them.

“Parents don’t always bring their children to go clothes shopping.” Ana reminded her, but her eyes were slits and her expression was cautious, “But, she is acting a bit oddly.”

“How do you mean?” Mei asked.

“She seems to be checking sizes, but she’s not pulling any out. She’s scanning the whole store but not leaving the area by the door.” She then went back to the changing room and asked, “Hana, when Molly goes up and shows Orisa the dress, can you go up behind her a little ways?”

“Uh, yeah.” Hana said, a bit confused.

“And would you mind recording her going up and down again?” Ana asked.

“… yeah, sure.” She said, finally opening the door and revealing Molly, she looked concerned now, looking at Angela, “Hey Angie, why don’t you go up with her? Maybe we can pick out some cute accessories for her on the way back to the dressing room too. Her hair could use some help.”

“Oi!” she cried, defensive, “Ain’ my fault they’d cut it while I was sleepin’!”

“No, but we might need to take you to get your hair cut soon.” Angela agreed. Molly covered her head with her hands, obviously not looking forward to it, her cowlicks poking out through her fingers, drooping a bit as if to match her pouting face.

“We should also take her to the dentist, too.” Fareeha suggested, “Get her teeth cleaned up.”

“My teeth _are_ clean!” She argued, not liking the way this conversation was going at all, “I brushed ‘um this mornin’!”

“Yeah, but you keep wincing when you drink hot tea.” She pointed out

“Cause it’s _hot_.” She said plainly, “You’d wince too if hot tea went by a loose tooth!”

“Children, behave.” Ana said, ending the argument right there and now before urging her towards the doorway to the rest of the store, “Go on, I am sure Orisa will love what you’re wearing now.” Molly nodded, obviously still a bit upset by the comments about her hair and teeth. Angela offered her hand, “Come now, we might catch her in between helping people cross the street!” she said cheerfully. Molly seemed a bit confused by the offer, but bashfully took it anyways and the two went towards the front, Hana right behind them, her phone out and the camera rolling as she stopped at a table and started picking through hair clips, hair bands and scrunchies, her camera still aimed at the two blondes going towards the front of the store. Molly hopped up to the display case and waved at her friend, not noticing the woman looking at her with wide eyes before glancing at her phone and back again. Angela put herself between her and the young junker as she happily hopped back onto the ground, “She said it was pretty ‘n colorful!” she informed her. She smiled at her as she took her hand again, “She did?”

“Yeah!” She then stopped short when she saw the only customer there she did not know, wincing as she suddenly closed her eyes and began rubbing her temple with her free hand, “Are you alright?” she asked, noting that the woman was coming towards them.

“My head hurts.” She murmured. She quickly scooped her up, “Oh, you poor dear…” she cooed, “Let’s go get your things and then we’ll go, alright?”

Molly nodded, pouting as she began rubbing her temples with both hands, the pain obviously worsening.

She began making her way back to the dressing room when she felt a hand on her arm, “Excuse me.” The woman said, “But is that child yours?”

“Yes, she is my Schätzeli.” She fibbed, trying to pull herself free, still holding Molly, who seemed to go limp for a bit, making it harder for her to hold her before pulling herself back up, “Now if you’d kindly release me, I need to get my daughter’s and my things and take her home, she isn’t feeling very well, as you can see.” The woman’s grip only tightened, “Really? Because, you see, I’ve never seen you in here before.” She said, her voice cold like ice.

“I do a lot of work in other countries, so she usually is with her father and uncle back home. It’s her first visit here and I wanted to take her out for some Mother-Daughter bonding.” She elaborated, seeing Hana glancing back at the others out of the corner of her eye, probably looking for guidance on what to do now. Guidance she would gladly take right now, she was winging it and wanted get them both away from this woman and join the others as fast as she could.

The woman’s grip was now quite painful on her arm, “and the other women here?”

“Friends. They wanted to treat her to lunch, but we thought it’d be more fun to have them join us.” She said, “The omnic is a part of the security detail where I work and my Chäferli asked her to join us for a girl’s day out. I certainly feel better knowing that if someone were to try to take her from me, she would not hesitate to stop them.” She said, hoping the woman would pick up on the threat and leave them alone. The woman scowled at her before looking to Molly, “What does Schätzeli and Chäderli mean?”

“I don’ feel good.” She moaned, keeping her eyes shut tight. The woman squeezed harder and Angela bit her lip to keep a yelp from escaping her lips. Molly seemed to pick up on this before she managed to translate for her, “Means little treasure ‘n little bug.” her voice was strained with pain, “It’s Swiss German.”

“You don’t sound Swiss.” The woman observed.

“_I don’ feel good_!” she whined, a loud cracking sound suddenly coming from the direction of the display window as she started to cry and she gripped her head.

“Hey, is she okay?” Hana asked, running up to them before scowling at the woman, “What are you doing? Let go of her! She needs to take her kid home!” she said firmly. When the woman did not budge, Hana held up her phone, “Let her go, or I’m calling the cops!” she threatened. The woman instead pulled a gun from her bag and held it at them, “Try it. It’ll be the last thing you ever do.” The woman warned, finally letting Angela go.

The Swiss doctor quickly pulled Hana close to them, protective of the young ones as the others along with the employees were then told to, “Come out here where I can see you all.”

They obeyed, begrudgingly as more cracking sounds came from the display window, “Drop any and all weapons.” She commanded.

“You really think we would bring weapons while picking out clothes for a child…” Brigitte began, only for the Amaris to both grumble as they pulled out small pistols from their bags.

“Are you two serious?!” Mei asked.

“I’ve found that it’s better to come prepared.” Ana said with a shrug. Fareeha simply explained that, “I don’t really leave home without something to defend myself with.”

“Do arms count?” Zarya asked, displaying her muscles while taking a step between her and Mei, who was trembling madly along with two of the employees who stood behind her.

“Not yours.” The woman said before aiming her gun right at Symmetra, “Your Vishkar gauntlet, if you please.”

“I will not. It is not a gauntlet, it’s a prosthetic and I need it.” Symmetra said firmly.

“Do you need it more than you need your head in one piece?” The woman asked coolly, “Because if you think I’d be dumb enough to think you wouldn’t make some sort of weapons to help your friends with your hard light, you will soon be _dead wrong._” Symmetra scowled as she then muttered something about it taking some time to take it off and to give her a moment, hissing something in what she guessed was her native tongue as she carefully began to remove it.

Molly finally opened her eyes to see Symmetra handing over her arm to the woman, her face filled with anger, shame and bitterness as she did so, her right hand hovering protectively over her left arm, which was cut off before her elbow.

“Thank you,” the woman purred, “My employers will be happy to not only get their property back, but to have a new bit of tech to play with… Speaking of which.” She then aimed the gun at Mercy, Hana and Molly again, “I’ll take M011 now, thank you.”

“That is _not_ her name.” Angela replied, her tone defensive and angry at the use of the cold codename while she felt Molly’s hands lower from her forehead and towards her chest with a sniffle, hot tears dripping onto her collarbone as she looked at the woman with the gun fearfully. She gave her a gentle, reassuring squeeze as she pulled her closer, turning her body a bit to put herself between her and Molly, stepping in front of Hana a little more and scowling at the woman and silently challenging her to ‘Just try to take her from me, bitch.’

The woman rose an eyebrow and rolled her eyes as she began to pull the trigger, “NO!” Molly shouted as she hugged her tightly, her arms wrapped her neck and her eyes closed with fear as the glass display case suddenly shattered, Hana quickly joining in the hug out of fear of being cut by broken glass, the two younger girls trembling a bit until Orisa climbed in through the window, throwing out a shield and instructing them all to, “PLEASE MOVE BEHIND THE BARRIER!” Which they did as the front door opened and a few pops of smoke bombs went off, the smoke quickly spreading through the room as a familiar cackle filled the room, followed by the sound of chains jingling.

Thank God. They were saved.

After a cry of, “Hey!” and a few gunshots bouncing against Orisa’s shield before she heard the sounds of chains jingling once more along with a cry that seemed to be muffled quickly by something hollow.

“G’day.” Junkrat greeted as the smoke started to clear, standing up straight and tall, looming over them in the center of the room, “Figured you sheilas could use a hand.” He laughed as held up the gun with his flesh hand as he removed the clip with his long fingers and held up Symmetra’s arm with his metal one, “Or in ‘Metra’s case, a whole arm.” The architect managed to not roll her eyes at the joke as she and the others slipped from behind the safety of the shield and thanked him softly as she carefully received it from him and began putting it back on. She smiled and joined them in their chorus of thanks to both him and Orisa, who was pleased as punch to have just been helpful.

“Thank goodness you were…” Angela paused halfway through her sentence as she realized that something warm and wet was now on the part of her neck where Molly’s chin was, and while she couldn’t see it, she knew those weren’t tears that had dripped onto her, “Molly?” she called, panic rising in her voice.

“OMIGAWD! THAT’S BLOOD!” Hana shrieked, her hands over her mouth as Ana quickly dashed over to them, concerned.

Molly pulled her head from it’s place, revealing a bloody nose that dripped down past her chin, helped along by her tears and most likely, had landed onto her blouse, “’M okay.” She assured her as she cupped a hand over her nose, probably to keep the dress from getting all bloody too, “Jus’ a nose bleed. Get these a lot too.”

“That is nothing to be okay with, Molly!” she said sternly, she then asked one of the employees if they had a bathroom, only to see that the worker was too busy looking at something behind her, frightened.

She turned and saw Roadhog pressing his scrap gun hard against the woman’s face as he growled, “You made ‘er _cry_ **_‘n_** **_bleed_**?”

“No! I didn’t!” the woman squeaked, her voice muffled by the barrel of his gun being pressed hard against her face, “I wouldn’t harm her, I was specifically told not to!”

“Then why is she bleedin’?” he asked, his finger itching on the trigger, Junkrat handing Brigitte the gun and ammo before pulling his grenade launcher from behind his back and began towering over her too, just to add some fear as he chuckled darkly, “I’d recommend ya answer ‘um. Ya already pissed ‘um off big time fer aiming a gun at his little sheila. Don’ think ya want ta make it any worse fer yourself now do ya?”

“I don’t know!” She blurted, “All I know is that they said that she got nosebleeds and to be careful when she got them!”

Roadhog let out another growl and seemed ready to plug a few chunks of shrapnel into the creature who threatened to take his new daughter away, only for him and Junkrat to both pause, Junkrat pushing something near his ear and saying, “Yeah, found ‘er jus’ in toime, had th’ girls at gunpoint in a kids’ shop. Bot helped keep ‘um safe with a barrier while me ‘n Hog disarmed ‘er.” He smirked, “_Literally_.” Another pause, “Cause she had ‘Metra’s arm. Probably figured she’d get a bonus or somethin’ stealin’ tech from Vishkar.” He smiled as he then said, “See? They got it!” His expression than sank into annoyance as he listened some more.

“Is that Jack?” Ana asked. “Yup, bloke won’ shut up.” The blonde replied with an annoyed sigh.

“Give it to me,” she instructed, “I’ll talk to him and I’ll need to talk to the manager as well, so I might as well relay both sides to one another.” The lanky bomber nodded, then pressed his com again, “Oi, Nan ‘ere said she’ll explain everything ‘n we’ll hold th’ bitch ‘ere ‘til ya come ta pick ‘er up. Says tha’ you ‘n her need ta talk ta th’ manager too.” He then handed her the ear piece as he then walked over to her and Molly, “You alroight, ya lil ankle biter?” he asked her.

“’M foine.” She said through her hand as she wiped at what were now stale tears on her cheeks with her free one, “I get nosebleeds a lot.”

“Ya haven’t had them with us.” He pointed out, concerned.

“… yeah I have.” She admitted, a bit ashamed, “I jus’ didn’ want you all ta worry, so I usually jus’ washed ma face with water ‘til it stops ‘n then pretend loike it didn’ happen.”

Angela scowled, “Well there will be no more of that, young lady, do you understand me? The next time you get anything like a headache or a nose bleed or even so much as a papercut, you tell me right away, understand?” she scolded.

Molly nodded, “Yes ma’am.” Her head tucked into her neck, obviously feeling guilty for keeping it from them for this long, “Does it make ya less mad tha’ I nicked th’ lady’s wallet ta find out who she was when she first grabbed yer arm?” she asked sheepishly.

“You did _what_?” she cried, horrified that she’d endanger herself like that and that she’d steal. Junkrat’s reaction to this news, however, was far more positive, “Really? Come on, then, show us th’ goods!”

“Junkrat!” she scowled.

“What?” he replied, “It’s not loike it’s gonna hurt ta know either who she is or at least one of ‘er aliases. It moight help us figure out who exactly hired ‘er ‘n why they were so focused on Molly ‘ere.” He then motioned for Molly to hand him her pilfered goods. She handed him a wallet from a high end brand that she pulled out of her pocket and he opened it, smiling as he pulled out a few ID cards with different names, “Looks like this sheila moight help us get some extra fundin’ after we’re done with ‘er if she has this many of these.” He then checked where cash was often kept and smiled at the child, “’M guessing ya took a nuisance fee?” he asked knowingly. Molly mirrored his smile and nodded as she pulled out a few envelopes from her other pocket. Junkrat gently ruffled her hair, “Atta girl!” he praised, “Mind if we borrow it ta show Morrison? Moight need it ta know where she was last, I’ll try ta get it back for ya as soon as he’s done with it.” She nodded again and handed it to him, him giving her a soft, ‘Ta’ before heading over back to Ana and who she guessed was the manager, showing her the wallet and the cash Molly had taken from her, seeming proud when pointing over to her before she seemed to ask him something and he walked over to their assailant, who Orisa and Roadhog loomed over as she sat in a ball on the floor, still recovering to having Roadhog’s massive gun shoved against her face.

“Um, excuse me?” a voice called, making her jump and turn to one of the employees, “We have a bathroom near the back you two can use to clean up and I can get the first aid kit for you if you need it.” she offered.

Angela nodded gratefully and was led towards the back of the shop towards the ladies room, “You can head inside, I have to get the first aid kit from the office.”

“Thank you.” She said softly as she made her way inside, once she had Molly seated on the counter by a sink, she instructed her to lean her head over it and to not pinch it, “It will do you no good holding it in.” she explained. The seven year old obeyed, bending her head towards the sink, “There, just like that.” She confirmed.

“I told ya I’d had ‘um before.” She said softly, “Not ma first toime doin’ this, though I normally did this into ma bucket…” she looked up at her, cupping her hand under her face due to her nose still dripping blood, “Yer arm okay?”

“Hm?” she asked, looking down at her arm to see a red hand print on it, a few deep imprints where the woman’s nails had dug into her skin, “This?” she asked, getting a small nod in reply. Angela silently debated telling her the truth or not before finally telling her that, “It’s a bit sore and it will probably become a big bruise, but it’s nothing I can’t handle.” The violet eyed thief nodded, turning back to the sink but still watching her through the mirror as she then wet a paper towel to carefully dab at the drop of blood on her shirt.

“Tha’s moine, roight?” she asked, worried as she pointed to the reddish stain in the mirror.

“Yes.” She replied, then looked over at her to find her staring at her, smiling a bit as she let out a sigh of relief. It was sweet that she had asked, albeit, she wished she hadn’t been so relieved that it was her own blood on her, but if that glass hadn’t broken at the right time, Molly wouldn’t have been the only one bleeding…

Wait a minute, she hadn’t heard any shots until _after_ Orisa had put her shield up for them. So was Orisa the one who broke the glass, or was it someone else? A memory from when Roadhog told her how he had found her all those months ago echoed in her head, ‘Wouldn’ a known she was even there if she hadn’ broken th’ glass of a vendin’ machine ta get a snack... Dunno how she did it without gettin’ hurt, though...’

D-did Molly somehow break the glass here too? But… how? She didn’t touch it at all, it simply began cracking until it shattered at the exact moment they’d needed it… but she, Hana and Molly had been closest to the window and she knew she and Hana hadn’t done anything, so that only left Molly, who had apparently done something like this before without any explanation of how she managed to get out unscathed, and then there was that giant hole in the back of the container and the safe and how low her blood pressure was when they arrived… She’d had a bloody nose at some point before Roadhog had gotten her... and there had been some pretty recent blood stains on the dress when she had first seen her, could she have wiped it off with her dress after breaking the glass?

She had too many questions and too few answers, and she intended to change that.

“Molly,” she called, getting the child’s attention, “Roadhog said that, back when he found you, you had managed to break the glass without getting hurt. How… how did you do that?”

“… can’ ‘member.” She mumbled, not making eye contact as she focused on the blood that was slowly sliding towards the drain. Angela watched her, the child’s body shaking a bit as she hung over the sink, “Orisa didn’t break the glass to save us, did she?” she asked.

“… dunno. Didn’ see.” The smaller blonde shrugged, still looking down, “Coulda been Hog or Rat…”

“Junkrat’s bombs wouldn’t have been safe to use to break a window, and neither would Roadhog’s gun or hook, we would’ve gotten hit with glass or shrapnel or fire and they wouldn’t risk that.” She pointed out, the tiny junker’s figure shaking more now as she said, “Guess so...”

“And she made us drop our weapons, even took Symmetra’s arm to keep her from making anything we could use to defend ourselves.” She went on to say before seeing fresh tears slide down her face despite her obvious effort not to do so, “So the only one who could have broken the glass and let the others outside know we needed help was you, wasn’t it?” Molly sat up and grabbed at her arms, nodding slowly, her nose now no longer bleeding. Angela got another damp paper towel and began gently wiping at her face as she asked, “Why didn’t you say anything before?”

“C-cause I can’ always control it.” she stammered, more tears starting to fall, “It’s why they got rid of me in th’ first place. Said somethin’ ‘bout how it was connected ta my emotions ‘n tha’ I was ‘damaged goods’. Tha’ they needed ta either fix me or get rid of me real quick ‘fore I caused anymore damage...”

“Anymore?” she repeated.

“I don’ wanna talk ‘bout it!” Molly sobbed. She pulled her close and rubbed her back as she cried into her shirt. They stayed like that for a little while, Angela murmuring soft comforts into the girl’s hair and humming to her before the employee from before walked in with the first aid kit and immediately became concerned at the sight of them, “Is she okay?” the woman asked, quickly coming closer and opening the kit, ready to assist if needed.

“Yes,” she said, “She’s fine, that whole thing just scared her and now that it’s over she can let it all out safely.” The employee nodded, shaking a bit, “Yeah, that was really intense… Glad that the omnic and those guys showed up when they did.” The woman ended the sentence there, obviously not willing to discuss what could have happened otherwise and simply left the kit with them and asked her to simply bring it out when they were done and leave it at the register, adding that, “The manager is planning on giving you all a discount for what happened, we know it’s not our fault, but we weren’t much help in diffusing the situation, either.”

“I doubt many would be.” She replied, “I certainly couldn’t. And while we appreciate it, we’d rather just pay what we owe and act as if this never happened.” Molly finally pulled away, wiping at her face, and nodded in agreement, “I wanna go back ta havin’ fun…” She sniffled.

The employee smiled, “Well, we do have a new shipment of accessories that we just got last night that we haven’t opened yet, why don’t we just bring out the boxes and let you take a look?”

“… can I have one of th’ empty boxes too?” she asked tentatively, then tacked on a “Please?” Because she probably figured that, besides hiding… _whatever _she did to break that glass, that she was probably on thin ice for stealing the bad guy’s wallet (Yes, yes she was.), so using the little manners she had would be a good way to dig herself out of trouble.

“Sure, it will save us having to cut it down for recycling.” The employee said without missing a beat.

“Okay…” she said, sounding a bit better now. The worker excused herself and left them alone once more. It was quiet for maybe a minute as Angela wiped the last of the tears away and put a cool cloth on her puffy, red eyes to cool them down and to help her face return to it’s original color.

“You gonna tell th’ others what I did?” she asked softly as Angela took another paper towel, loaded it with soap and water and wiped at the blood on her tiny hands.

“Hmmm… maybe later. You said that whatever you did before was linked to your emotions right?” She nodded, “So it’d probably be best to do something fun and calm down first, don’t you think?” she asked, giving her a big smile. Molly gave her a small smile in return as she nodded again and the two left the bathroom, dropping the first aid kit at the register on the way back with a thanks before continuing on towards the others.

Once they got closer, they could see that Fareeha and Zarya were shoving the gunwoman into the back of a car waiting outside, the woman was pushed into the middle seat, next to Genji, with Hanzo sliding in after her before they closed the door. Jack talking with Ana and the manager by the broken window, the Junkers and girls chatting with the others, catching them up to speed on what had happened as they finally reached them. Roadhog spotted them, walked over and bent down as close as he could to his charge’s level before asking, “You okay?”

“Yeah. Jus’ a nosebleed, foine now.” She said quickly, hoping to move on, only for him to point to her face and rumble that, “you were cryin’.”

“…well, yeah. It was scary…” she said softly, looking down at the shoes Lena had picked out for her.

“Better now?” he asked. She looked up at him and nodded, pleased that he wasn’t going to keep asking her about it, “Much better.” He carefully ruffled her hair, his large fingers drooping down past her neck as he did so, making her smile broadly up at him, “Good.” He said, “‘M glad…” He paused, then pointed to the dress with his free hand, “Looks good on you.” Her smile became bashful as she began rocking back on her toes, “Thank you.” She said shyly as he gave her hair a final, gentle ruffle before removing it and getting back up onto his feet, her cowlicks now curled tightly towards the center of her head, almost forming the shape of a heart.

He then looked at Angela, “Next time, we should jus’ let ‘er brin’ ‘er piggy bank, would’ve saved us a lot of trouble if she did.”

“Agreed.” She laughed before Jack called for the guys to head out, “We have a potential kidnapper to question before turning her over.” The boys made their way out, throwing a few waves good bye in their direction before heading out. Molly still absolutely beaming at the compliment Roadhog gave her even five minutes later when the workers pulled boxes out from the back and let them all browse through them, picking out a few more things to add to Molly’s growing wardrobe.

Giving Angela the feeling that the dress she was wearing now would no doubt be one of her favorites.


	9. Uncomfortable

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rat and Winston have a chat and Lena scientifically proves that Rat DOES have freckles.

Junkrat had been waiting around the interrogation room with Winston and Hog for what felt like forever.

Winston had been asked to stick around in case they needed to give him something to check out right away and he and Hog were around to make sure their ‘guest’ stayed in line.

And while he got why they were sitting around, he was starting to get antsy and had quickly decided to pull out his notebook to sketch out some new designs or new mixes before he went stir crazy. After a few pages of ideas were scrawled out on paper in pencil, he found his mind wandering to what had happened earlier in town, noticing a familiar bot that had left with the girls earlier, hearing Molly’s voice shouting, “NO!” and glass shattering towards them but not hurting them, the three of them looking inside to see a woman holding a gun at Mercy, Molly and Hana, ready to fire, while holding Symmetra’s arm, the sight had lit a rage in his belly that he had to let go of quickly if he wanted to keep the girls bullet free.

The three of them hadn’t even had to say anything to each other to know what to do. The bot ran in as soon as she saw the gun and immediately flung a shield for the girls to hide behind, it wasn’t nearly as good as one of Symmetra’s or old Reinhardt’s, but for what was happening at that moment, it was more than good enough. Junkrat flung some smoke bombs in to increase the chance of them being safe and a better chance for him to snatch the gun away as well as Symmetra’s arm (which he was still going to count as holding her hand!) without getting shot. He had slipped in, staying as low has he could being as tall as he was, hearing the shots ping against the shield with a smile on his face that they were all safe and managed to swipe his targets with ease. The woman did spot him a few feet away before Hog stomped in and pulled her back with his chain and pressed his gun against her face, furious and defensive.

But now, as he looked at his friend, hunched over and breathing heavily as his masked face was turned to the floor and his hands gripping his chain, much to the ape’s obvious discomfort, he saw a man who saw two people he really cared about having a gun pointed at them and, now that it was all over and they were safe, was having a fucking panic attack about it. Now, they, along with the other adult women who had gone shopping with the little Junker, fought bad guys for a living, and while nearly getting shot on the job was terrifying and painful and unfortunately a normal risk of the job, it was far more frightening for this incident to happen so close to home while they were doing something as simple as _buying clothes_. Where they would probably be without weapons (except for in the cases of the Amaris, who had brought guns, and Symmetra’s arm, which could build pretty much anything with just a swift flick of her delicate fingers.) and have no way to call them on comms or anything if something went wrong to get help like they could on a mission. The best they could do was their phones and there was a chance that they might not be able to dial any of them in time, let alone be okay by the time they got there.

And the fact that the kid his best friend was trying to adopt was not only in the line of fire, but was the main target, and the woman of his dreams was doing her best to protect her unarmed and without any kind of fire power related back up?

Well, when they were there, it pissed Hog off more than Junkrat had ever really dared to try to. Hell, he’d been sorely tempted to take her own gun and pump her full of lead for that himself, but they both knew that, even if they really _really_ wanted to end this bitch’s life, it would have to wait until they got the facts… didn’t mean that the two couldn’t fucking terrorize her for shits and giggles all they wanted. (No one stopped them, in fact, McCree, Hanzo and Genji had gladly actually joined in.)

But now that Morrison and Hanzo (who apparently had experience in interrogation as well) were in there, making her talk while they were out here waiting?

It was completely and utterly haunting and horrifying to Rat, it was hard to imagine how Hog, or hell, even the girls had felt about that. It had crushed him to see Molly come out of the bathroom with her nose and eyes redder than when she had went in from crying. Hog had easily fixed that by using his super effective new parental powers of concern and compliments, but who knows if his comforts would be enough? Rat sure as hell didn’t know, his memories of his own parents were spotty at the best of times, their faces often blurred and their voices often a bit warped on the very rare occasion he dreamed about the happier times. Anything they might of done to comfort him for whatever reason was lost to time ages ago, and the few pieces that might have bubbled up at any time were usually about things he couldn’t remember and he couldn’t be sure if their efforts had actually worked.

He looked up at Winston, knowing Hog was far too out of it to be paying attention to how nervous he was making him, “Yer foine, mate, he’s just freakin’ out tha’ he jus’ sent his application ta be a dad yesterday ‘n someone’s already tried ta shoot Molly.” He explained. The silver backed scientist was surprised by the sudden explanation, but the reasoning seemed to make sense to him, “That is certainly understandable.” He looked over to Hog, concerned, “Perhaps we should all start teaching her some basic self defense as well, it might help ease his discomfort a bit. I’ll start asking tomorrow after everyone has had some time to recover from this.” Rat nodded in agreement before looking back at Hog, “He’s really out of it, though. Never seen him loike this. Kinda freakin’ me out ta be honest.”

“How can you even tell?” He asked, astonished.

“He’s my best mate.” He said, “You ‘n Pommy are best mates, you two can tell what th’ other is feeling too.” He pointed out.

“Most of the time.” He said, “It’s not always easy with the species differences...”

“Pretty sure women are a whole different species compared to everyone with a dick, mate.” He joked. Winston chuckled a bit at that, “Perhaps.” He agreed.

“So you get anythin’ on th’ one who held th’ girls at gunpoint?” Rat asked.

“Very little, most of the identities she had were for various government agencies, so anyone who just did a simple background check would think she was the real deal. But I did a little more digging, I don’t have her real name, but several higher ups from Hyde each took out specific amounts of cash that we accounted for in those envelopes Molly stole, still running her prints and DNA for possible matches.” He supplied.

“Yeah, girls all said somethin’ ‘bout ‘er sayin’ tha’ ‘er bosses would be happy ta not only get their ‘property’ back, but ta have some new tech ta play with when she had ‘Metra hand over ‘er arm. Figure th’ only ones who would call Molly tha’ are either Hyde or Talon.” Rat theorized.

“Luckily for us, it seems to be just Hyde today, but I’ll have Athena start scanning through footage from all over the area to keep an eye out for any Talon agents or any more Hyde mercenaries.” The ape said.

“Me ‘n Hog did a job fer Hyde once.” Junkrat informed him, “’N I’ll tell ya, those blokes ain’t ones ta work fer. Sent us ta wreck their own bots ‘n then fucked us over. Used th’ fact tha’ it’s common knowledge tha’ Junkers don’t loike bots ta keep th’ heat off themselves ‘n let us take th’ fall ‘n didn’ even bother payin’ us. If she doesn’ open up fer them, me ‘n Hog moight be able ta convince ‘er ta talk by tellin’ ‘er how they screwed us over.”

“And if she doesn’t believe you?” Winston asked.

Rat shrugged, “We tell ‘er tha’ if she ain’ gonna talk than there ain’ no point in keepin’ ‘er alive. I mean, she already tried ta hurt our own ‘n Hog’s kid, so she’s lucky we’ve let ‘er live this long. Back in Junkertown, ole Queenie would’ve put ‘er through hell for breakin’ one of the few rules we’ve got.”

“Which is?” his furry boss asked.

“Finders Keepers.” He recited easily, “Hog found ‘er, he gets ta keep ‘er. They were dumb enough ta leave ‘er out in an empty warehouse in th’ middle of the noight with no security or nothin’. They were pretty much _askin_’ fer ‘er ta be stolen so they got no roight to ‘er anymore, than there’s another important rule: settle your own scores. Which means she should’ve been going for Hog ‘n me fer findin’ ‘er ‘n breakin’ ‘er out, not th’ others ‘n definitely not Molly.”

“Hmmm…” Winston hummed thoughtfully, “That’s actually a good point, why was there so little security around Molly back in that warehouse? When you first told me what had happened, I was far too shocked to learn that this weapon Talon had been so eager to get their hands on was actually a child to really think that much of it. And when she arrived with such a lacking understanding of the world, well, we were all quite busy trying to help her get up to speed.” Rat nodded, urging him on, “You all did say there were a few cameras, but those alone wouldn’t be enough to stop someone from just walking in and taking her…” The gorilla stood up, “I’m going to go through her files again, it makes no sense to put all that time and money into making Molly if they were just going to leave her alone to get snatched up by any passerby and making their customer angry. And why only send someone for her now? Hana and Molly’s lets plays are popular enough that it wouldn’t have been hard to find out she was here and snatch her when an opportunity presented itself. There has got to be a good reason for all this…”

“There you are!” A familiar chipper voice sang happily, finally snapping Hog out of his haze to watch with Rat and the gorilla as Lena flashed over to them, holding a bucket of water and a hanky.

“What are those fer?” he asked. She smiled impishly, “I’m so glad you asked.” She said before pouring the water onto his head.

“Oi!” he cried, pushing back strands of wet blonde hair off of his scowling face with his flesh fingers before she began rubbing at his cheeks with the hanky, “Th’ _fuck_, Lena?!” he shouted, trying to push her off without hurting her (Her best friend was standing right there and was a fucking gorilla, he doubted the hairy genius would go easy on him if he hurt her, even if it was just self defense here.) only for her to happily flash around him, continuing to scrub at his cheeks until she squealed that, “You _do_ have freckles!” and then skipped down the hall and turned a corner and dashed out of sight, leaving the bucket behind.

“Th’ fuck was all tha’ ‘bout?!” he snapped, still dripping wet, but Hog and Winston were just as confused as to what just happened as he was. Neither of them saying a word until Winston finally replied a minute later, “I am not quite sure, but your theory of women being another species might not be entirely false.” Hog let out a snort in agreement before pushing himself onto his feet, saying that, “Gonna see if they need help gettin’ Molly’s stuff to ‘er room.”

Rat wiped at his face a bit, wincing as sooty water hit his eyes, “Ugh, might as well hit th’ showers, ‘m already soaked.” He looked at Winston, “Let us know what ya foind out, will ya?” The silverback scientist nodded a confirmation before he made his way to his room to get his stuff, muttering and swearing.

The fuck had she meant by ‘you do have freckles’? Was that why she just did that? And so what if he did? Why bother checking? Why bother checking by _throwing water on him and rubbing his face with a hanky?! _Just WHY?!? WHY DID SHE DO THAT?!

He felt the cold water tricking down his back, soak through his shorts and down towards his rump and quickened his pace as chills crept up his spine. He’d grown up treasuring what little fresh water he could get his hands on for drinking, not dunking his dirty ass in. And the little rain they got in the Outback was often acid rain, which was not the kind you should or would sing in. He was used to being covered in dirt, grime, grease and soot and being without it felt alien to him so he often went without. That and the fact that everyone here always looked at him funny and seem amazed and joke around about how something bad was going to happen since he was clean whenever he _did_ bathe, which didn’t exactly make him feel any better about the whole thing. But he was already soaked, so he might as well. Still wasn’t happy about it.

He grabbed his things and made his way to the showers, still scowling.

It wasn’t just about the way he grew up, but how difficult it was to bathe/shower without an arm and leg. Yeah, the showers here had seats and you could sit in the tub, but it was still hard to really clean himself up properly while sitting down and without both arms and lowering himself or walking onto a wet surface without four limbs was often a dangerous game he’d found. He also didn’t like taking off his arm and leg unless he was hankering down into his bed, surrounded by bear traps and empty casings (figured no one would know they were empty, after all, bombs were his thing, for all they knew, they were live.) but he had to remove them when bathing, they could handle rain and a little water, but too much and they would get all rusty on him if he didn’t address to it right away.

He groaned, he could bitch about it all day, but it wouldn’t do him any good, best to just get it over with and distract himself from the stares he’d get by seeing what kind of loot the littlest Junker managed to get today. He hoped she had managed to have fun after what happened at that store, it would suck for her first day out in town to be completely ruined by some wannabe kidnapper…

But before he could think anymore on the topic, he felt someone ram into him, knocking them both over onto the floor with him landing on his ass and his elbows, “Th’fuck?” he grumbled, his eyes shut and his shower stuff most likely all over the floor. Great, _swell_.

“Junkrat?” a familiar elegant voice asked. He opened them to see Symmetra literally hunched over top of him, her cheeks flushed and several bags hanging off of her arms and the items that were once in them spilled out onto the floor around them along with his shower things, “’Metra?” he replied as he felt heat growing in his own cheeks at her proximity, surprised. She had not been the one he had expected to see right now, but he sure as well wasn’t going to complain. (Well, not anymore, anyways.)

Symmetra seemed to realize that she was still on top of him and quickly pushed off him and began picking up her things off the floor, “I’m terribly sorry! I hadn’t seen you there!”

“Yeah, I figured.” He said with a chuckle, he didn’t often get to see her flustered, so he was planning to enjoy it while it lasted as he began gathering his own belongings as he asked, “What’s ya hurry?”

She was quiet for a moment, the blush spreading on her face as she finally explained that, “we’re trying to get everything out of the car as quickly as possible, I guess I was so caught up in my task that I hadn’t paid as much attention as I should have.”

“Uh huh, sure.” He laughed, pushing the wet hair off of his face again, making her scowl at him before the heat seemed to consume her face and make her expression change into one he hadn’t seen on her before. “Why are you wet?” she asked, bewildered.

“Ah, Pommy came outta nowhere while me, Hog ‘n the ape were waitin’ for Morrison ta tell us whether he’d need us or not ta help with th’ one who took yer arm earlier ‘n dumped a bucket of water on me head.” He explained, embarrassed.

She looked at him, obviously confused, “Why on earth would she do that?”

“Dunno! She jus’ dumped it on me head ‘n rubbed at me face with a hanky for a bit. When she finally stopped, she was all, ‘Ya_ do_ have freckles!’ before runnin’ off. No idea what she was on ‘bout.” He said, noting her expression quickly slipping into a neutral one (which meant that she was trying to hide her feelings from others) and her hands shaking a bit as she gathered the last of her things and put them in a nearby bag, not even bothering to fold them like she normally would, “That is quite odd.” She agreed in an even tone, nervousness slipping through despite her best efforts as she quickly got to her feet, “Well, as much as I’d like to speculate as to why she would do such a thing, I best put my things in my room and head back to the garage to help unload Molly’s new belongings.”

“Tha’ all yer stuff?” he asked her, indicating the many bags around her, she nodded, “Then no worries, Hog went down ta help get Molly’s stuff already, so unless ya forgot somethin’, then there’s no need ta head back down there.” He then got up to his feet, picking up his shower tote with one hand and a few of her bags in the other, “In th’ mean toime, I don’ mind helpin’ ya get yer stuff to yer room before headin’ to th’ showers.” She stiffened a bit at that, “You were headed to the showers?” she asked, disbelieving.

“Well, ‘m already wet.” He pointed out with a shrug, “’N Lena already scrubbed me face for me, figure I moight as well finish what she started.”

She picked up the rest of her bags, her face still red as she avoided looking at anything but his boot and the bottom of his peg leg, “While I appreciate the offer, I’d rather not get dirty water all over my new things.”

He feigned pain as he grasped at his chest, “Ouch, love, ‘n ‘ere I thought we’d been gettin’ along real noice lately.” He said, his tone teasing and he really didn’t care if it showed.

“I did not mean to offend,” she said, starting to curl up on herself a bit, obviously starting to lose her cool, “I just prefer things to be clean and orderly and I bought a few books today...”

“Yeah, ‘ve noticed.” He laughed, indicating a few paperbacks she’d hastily stuffed into one of her bags before deciding that he’d muddled her mind enough for one day and handed her bags back to her, “Point taken, I’ll clean me mug so you don’ have ta clean yer goods.”

She stared at the floor, bashful and stubborn as she murmured out a, “Thank you.”

“No worries.” He said cheerfully as he gave her a small smile, a wave and a “Hooroo, darl!” before resuming his trip to the showers with a skip in his step (well, as close to one as he could get, anyway) and his smile broadening as he walked.

While he still wasn’t sure why Lena had dumped all that water on him, he had a feeling that the line about his freckles had to do with Symmetra, and seeing how flustered she had gotten when talking with him, he was curious how she’d react to him being all nice and clean to see all his freckles. He let out a snort that turned into a laugh as he finally walked into the shared shower room, if being clean made her all cute and awkward like that, then maybe being a little out of his element was worth it.


	10. Questions 'n Queries

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hog tells Mercy a bit about life back in Oz while putting his little sheila's new things away and Molly apologizes to the wrong person for telling all the human girls about what Symmetra wants to do with Rat's freckles.

Roadhog carried a large cardboard box filled with goodies in one hand while he held a couple bags of clothes in the other, Mercy and Zarya holding a few more bags and walking with him while Molly skipped around them, the balloon tied around her wrist the only thing helping him keep note of where she was around them as she chattered on and on about all the things they did after he and the other guys left them to resume their mission.

“’N then th’ nice bloke gave me a balloon ‘n said it was fer bein’ a good girl all day!” she gushed, “I must be a pretty good thief fer him ta think I was bein’ good _all_ day!” Hog chuckled at that while Mercy was obviously concerned by that proudly spoken statement and Zarya decided to come to the child’s defense, “You did it to help identify a villain, so you _were_ a good girl today.”

Molly stopped mid-skip and seemed to think about it for a second before looking torn between wanting to be a good girl in most of the other’s eyes and wanting him and Rat to be proud of her sneaky thievery skills.

“You did a good job stealin’ fer a good reason, so you were both a good thief ‘n a good kid.” Hog finally settled, leaving Molly to smile, obviously pleased that he had settled her internal dilemma and that he deemed both her theft and behavior as ‘good’.

Once they got to her room, Zarya dropped a few of her bags off in the child’s room before telling them that she was going to put her new things away before heading to dinner and telling them that she’d see them then and leaving. Mercy, however stayed behind to help put all the new clothes away, since his little Junker seemed to be far more interested in picking out things from her box and wandering around, wondering where she should put them while dragging a new stuffed toy, a pig with wings, around with her. Apparently the little piggy made to fly was fresh from a claw machine, according to Mercy. Each of them had tried and failed to get one until Hana managed to snag it for her, bragging about how her pro-gamer skills worked on more things than just her MEKA, like dating and stuff.

Hog looked at Molly after that, “Molly, remind me, how did Pipsqueak react ta Lùcio kissin’ ‘er again?”

“He _what_?” Mercy cried, shocked.

“She got all red ‘n couldn’ really talk much fer a while.” Molly reminded him, holding a rolled up poster in one hand and her piggy in the other, “Why?”

“No reason, jus’ makin’ sure I remember tha’ roight fer later.” he told her.

“Oh, okay!” she said, going back to work trying to pick the perfect place to put her new poster on her bedroom wall, rubbing her chin thoughtfully and pointing to a place before asking her new toy, who she would have oink it’s replies, her balloon bouncing in the air after her as she went from one side of the room to the other.

He did his best to help put her clothes away, but they were like tiny doll’s clothes to his big fingers and he wasn’t really doing much other than trying not to tear them and squinting at them to figure out what they were, asking Mercy on occasion.

After a few minutes of this, he gave up, “Okay, ‘m useless at this, ‘m gonna get Symmetra, she could get this stuff sorted in no toime.”

“Good luck with tha’.” Molly said over her shoulder as she was now trying to figure out where precisely she planned to put her new holo-frame, “We teased ‘er a lot fer kissin’ Rat ‘n fer likin’ his freckles ‘n stuff on th’ way home, she’s probably not gonna come out of ‘er room for a while.”

“… So tha’ was what tha’ was all ‘bout.” He mumbled.

“Hm?” Mercy asked.

“Lena poured a bucket of water on Rat a little while ago ‘n rubbed a cloth on his face fer a bit. When she stopped, she said somethin’ ‘bout him havin’ freckles ‘fore runnin’ off as if it never happened.” Hog explained. “Confused us ‘n th’ ape when she did it.”

Mercy was surprised by this, but not as surprised as Molly, who quickly became upset by the news, she put her new holoframe down onto her bedside table and walked to the door, “Where are you off ta?” he asked her.

“’M gonna go ‘pologize ta Rat.” She said, looking quite guilty as she opened the door and dashed off towards the boy’s side of the dorms, holding her toy close to her chest and her balloon trailing behind her.

“Why would she ‘pologize?” he wondered aloud.

“Because she was the one who told us that Symmetra, and I quote, ‘wants to map all the constellations of his freckles, birthmarks and moles with her hands… but only if he was clean.’” She explained. Hog jerked his head back in surprise, “I know I should be happy fer Rat in all, soince he loikes ‘er, but how th’ hell did Molly know tha’?”

Mercy paused at the question and slumped her shoulders a bit before looking at him with a guilty expression, “I told her she wouldn’t have to tell everyone that until after dinner.” She admitted, “But she didn’t say it in front of her or anything.”

“Wasn’ worried ‘bout tha’.” He informed her, “I was worried tha’ she managed ta read th’ book I loaned Symmetra last week cause it mentioned th’ main character wantin’ ta do tha’ ‘fore a scene tha’ I don’ want ‘er ta know anythin’ ‘bout ‘til she’s at least...” he paused, trying to decide when he’d want her to know about that before simply saying, “Actually, changed me mind. I never want ‘er ta know what happened in tha’ scene. Ever.”

“You realize it will be hard to do that, right?” Mercy teased.

“She ain’ gonna get ‘um from me.” He assured her.

“She’s already proven to be quite sneaky today, I doubt she’ll have a hard time eventually finding a way to get to your books, especially since she’s picked one up before already without too much trouble.” She reminded him.

“Don’ remind me.” He groaned, making her giggle as he glanced towards the door, his eyes widening, “Shite, forgot Rat’s in th’ showers.”

“Junkrat is taking a shower?” Mercy blurted in disbelief.

“Oi.” He said firmly, “He grew up in a place where clean, non-radiated fresh water ain’ easy ta come by ‘n when ya foind it, it’s fer drinkin’ not dunkin’. It’s hard ta break habits, but he’s been gettin’ better. Probably moight do it more often if people weren’ givin’ ‘um a hard toime ‘bout being finally bein’ clean whenever he does do it.” he said pointedly, making Mercy wince a bit.

“You’re right,” she said softly, “I’m sorry. It’s just, it’s difficult to remember that you two lived in a place where something as easy to get as fresh water was a rarity. Especially since I personally don’t know what that’s like.”

He grunted in agreement before saying that, “Trust me, it’s better tha’ you don’ know what it was loike, it ruins people.”

“Yet you two insist that you are fine, that you don’t need treatment no matter how bad the injury is.” She said, sounding a bit irritated, “Or your _condition_.” She added pointedly. He managed not to wince at that, she meant his breathing problems. She’d been bugging him to let her try to help him ever since they’d gotten here and she heard him rasping and when he refused to remove his mask… she eventually managed to wrangle it off of him, but quickly put it back on after learning that it helped him breathe better, a bit put out that she couldn’t inspect his facial scars in more detail as well as address his breathing troubles.

Which was good, it was uncomfortable having someone looking so intensely at his bare face. Mako Rutledge had gone from being a short, chubby kid into a large man both in height and girth, and his lungs had a bit of a hard time keeping up with all of him when he had been a kid, so it had been harder as an adult, but he managed. And not many people wanted to spent time with a large, heavy breathing man with a very deep voice and a face only his mother seemed to love, it didn’t get much better after an omnic sliced it up badly, making it hard to see through the blood as it began slicing more of him while he had been trying to take his mother somewhere safe on his bike, since she was the only family he had left. His mother managing to destroy it, getting herself badly hurt in the process, and with no real doctors in the Outback anymore, he’d eventually had to bury his mother with stitches that he’d had to put in himself still in his face, the tears stinging the hardly healed cuts.

That’s when he joined the AFL, not during her burial, of course, but the one who let him join had been visiting a grave of another victim of the bloody bots and told him that they’d had a plan to stop those metal monsters from ever harming anyone else ever again, to not make orphans out of any more kids.

That’s when he’d met the rest of his group, who included Chelsea “Cheshire” Carroll (Molly’s Mother) and old Bruce. They were a part of the plan that led to the Omnium blowing. Luckily, his team had been one of a handful to act as distractions to lure more of the bots from their nest, so they had been far enough away to not be killed immediately by the blast. But it did nothing to help his lungs. Cheshire’d had his mask on her at all times he remembered, he never asked why, figured it was none of his business. While his team was lamenting over what they had helped cause and while he struggled to breathe in a small shack they’d fitted out as a make shift base in case their mission failed, Cheshire had brought it to him, modified to look like pig’s face, considering they all knew how much he liked them, the first thing he’d done was make a face and managed to growl out, “This supposta be a joke?”

“A little.” She admitted, “This was designed ta help people breathe better… it was originally my sister, Molly’s, but she would’ve wanted you ta have it. I just made it pig themed ta match yer little toys.” He had hesitated a moment before putting it on, and finding that it really did help, not just with his breathing, but to make him somewhat less self conscious of his appearance, at least at the time. Over the years that perk of his mask seemed to morph into a need to keep it on at all times, and not just for breathing, he stopped taking it off so he wouldn’t prove himself to be just as terrifying a man out of the mask than in it, not that it would have put him at much of a disadvantage or anything in Junkertown, but still, it was never pleasant to hear screams of terror when people looked at your real face, it was one of the main reasons he hadn’t taken off his mask in front of Molly yet.

Mercy managed to not be scared of him due to her professional duty to help him, but once she saw that she couldn’t fix these scars and remembered what he had done and what he was, would she become fearful of him too?

“You know we ain’, though.” He reminded Mercy, forcing himself not to think of an answer for his own sake, “’N I don’ mean jus’ physically, Rat gets noightmares about things tha’ happened out there, I do too. We were different people before th’ omnium blew, livin’ in a world of survival of th’ fittest really fucks with a bloke’s head in more ways they would’ve never known possible.” He shook his head, this wasn’t what he had wanted to talk about today. Don’t get him wrong, it actually felt pretty good to get off his chest, but he had forgotten something important. And that was that, other than the people here and out in Oz, the world didn’t really care about Junkers. They just wanted them gone, like they were some sort of disease instead of a reminder that any group of people when forced into situations where they had to do what they had to for survival would probably do what the Junkers did. They were practically the poster children of a society where Darwin’s law was pretty much the only law they respected outside of Queenie’s and that scared people more than they were willing to admit, despite the fact that they only were as violent as they were due to a need to become that way to survive. If the drongos by the shores didn’t lock up all the shit they didn’t even really want but the Junkers needed, they’d probably just take what they needed and leave with no trouble, no fuss, no muss, maybe even thank them for the stuff... Maybe.

He tried to rub his face, only for his fingers to touch his mask and for him to remember that he’d even been wearing it. He always wore it, why did he forget that so much? He literally just had a flashback of when he’d gotten it and everything!

“Sorry.” He mumbled, “Shouldn’ of snapped at ya.”

“It’s quite alright, it’s actually a bit refreshing to hear you talk about it.” she said, “I may not know what living out there was or is like, but I know keeping things bottled up for too long isn’t healthy.”

“… Don’ make it any easier ta talk ‘bout.” He observed.

“No, no it does not.” She agreed, “But do you feel any better?” He paused, thoughtful, “A bit.” He admitted, then noticed her rubbing the arm of her sweater… which, she hadn’t really been wearing when they dropped Molly off with them this morning, nor did she have it when they saved them from being shot, but at that time she _did _have a red mark shaped like a hand on her arm. She seemed to notice him staring, “Roadhog?”

“You weren’ wearin’ tha’ earlier today.” He said.

“Oh, yes, I bought it after we left that first store,” she explained cheerfully, “It was quite the bargain too-“

Roadhog gently took her arm in his large hand, surprising her, and carefully pulled the sleeve back to see the red mark had darkened into a painful looking bruise with several little scabs where one would guess a person’s fingernails had been and looked her right in the eyes, well, as well as he could anyway, “Yer turn ta talk.” He said, “’n not ‘bout Molly, tha’ can wait ‘til after dinner loike ya promised ‘er.” She didn’t break eye contact, surprisingly enough, her face went from cheerful to a bit tired, “What do you want me to say?” she asked.

“Why ya felt th’ need ta hide it.” he said plainly, “Yer always tellin’ us ta always tell ya when we’re aching or feelin’ loike shite! Hell, ya jus’ gave me crap ‘bout me lungs! But ya get a bruise ‘n a few scrapes ‘n ya feel loike ya gotta hide ‘um with a new sweater? I ‘member you gettin’ all pissy with Rat cause he tried ta hide bruises with a shirt once, said tha’ hidin’ yer wounds won’ fix ‘um!” He stopped himself by taking a deep breath, he was getting too angry about this, he needed to calm down. He inhaled deeply once more before letting go of her arm, “So what made ya doubt yer own words?” he inquired, indicating her arm with his finger.

She seemed surprised at the rush of words from his mouth, reminding him that, before he had found Molly, he hardly ever said more than a word or two a day to anyone other than Rat around here. But she seemed unable to really argue his points and sighed as she gently rubbed her fingers above the large bruise, “It wasn’t that I doubted my words. It’s more like I wanted someone else to think it wasn’t as bad as it is.”

“Molly?” he guessed. She nodded as she pulled her sleeve back down, “I kept catching her looking at my arm with a guilty expression, as if it had been her who had grabbed me.” She looked at the hidden bruise, “I just wanted to keep her mind off of it, it was bad enough that we were nearly shot and she was nearly kidnapped, but for her to see a reminder on my arm every time she looked my way?” she shook her head, “This shopping trip was supposed to be fun for her, and if it meant I had to buy myself a sweater and roast for most of the day to keep her mind off an unpleasant part of it, than it was worth it.”

He stiffened, realizing something.

“Roadhog? What’s wrong?”

Shit. Shit. SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT **_FUCK_**!! THE KIDNAPPER WAS STILL HERE AND THEY LET HER GO OFF TO TRY TO FIND RAT ALONE!!

“… Molly’s been gone fer too long.” He said, his stomach sinking, “’n th’ bitch who tried ta take ‘er is still in th’ buildin’.” Mercy’s eyes widened in fear before looking up to the ceiling, “Athena, is Molly still in the building?!”

“Yes.” The AI replied, “She is currently waiting outside the shower room, she went there after bumping into Winston and was told that Agent Junkrat said he was going to take a shower.”

“Can you keep an eye on her for us until we get there and let us know if she’s on the move?” she asked her.

“Of course.” Athena confirmed before they quickly left her room (closing the door behind them, just in case the woman wandered around and found a way to tell her bosses which room was hers) and running over to the shower rooms, where they found Junkrat kneeling down next to her, wearing his usual dirty shorts and boot, his blonde hair wet and hanging off his head, still dripping. His towel hung around his neck and his shower supplies sat in a tote by his peg leg. Molly was still holding her new toy and still had her balloon tied to her wrist, Rat obviously liking what she was telling him, “Map ‘um with ‘er hands, ey?” he snickered, amber eyes glistening with glee.

“So, you’re not mad?” she asked, relieved.

“Hell no! I only wish ya told me sooner!” he said cheerfully as he ruffled her hair, “What else did you foind out?” She smiled eagerly and opened her mouth only for Mercy to call out, “Molly!” She turned to them and she and Rat both seemed confused by their concerned expressions, before her eyes widened and she pouted, “Oh, come on, Angela, Symmetra never made me pinky promise not ta tell ‘um ‘bout _tha’_!” she whined.

“Yeah!” Rat agreed with a smile before pausing, “Wait, what _did_ she make ya promise not ta tell me?” he asked her, the little junker covering her mouth with her hands and shaking her head, “Can’ tell ya, sorry.” Hog barely could hear his lanky friend pout and ask why not over the sound of Mercy’s real name echoing in his head, he turned and looked at her. Her name definitely suited her, that was for sure. She did truly resemble an angel on the battlefield, as well as the angels he could remember seeing at Christmas time when he was little, his mother telling him how they were kind, caring and gentle when he’d asked her about them while they had been out getting food for a little feast for their family.

“Angela?” he repeated, more to try to say the name himself than to ask confirmation on if he’d heard Molly right.

“Yeah, she told me I could call ‘er tha’ today while we were shoppin’.” She informed him, obviously proud of herself. Not that ‘Angela’ understood why, “Yes, I’ve actually been meaning to ask you two, why do you two insist on being called on your monikers, even at home?” She asked him.

“Can I?” The violet eyed child asked them eagerly, he and Rat looked at each other, shrugged and nodded, “Junkers didn’ use their real names at first ‘cause they needed ta steal ‘n loot ta survive ‘n they didn’ want the government ta know who they were, they’d already taken our homes ‘n our way of livin’ away, our names were th’ only parts of our old lives tha’ we had left ‘n we weren’ riskin’ them takin’ tha’ too. Then it just became a part of our culture, kids loike me grow up usin’ our real names ‘til we’re considered adults, then we get our Junker names. We only give our real names ta people we trust, loike family ‘n friends. Ta be able ta call someone by their real name is a big deal ta us.” She explained, her chest puffed up with pride and her eyes glancing up at him and Rat to make sure she explained it right. They both gave her a thumbs up, making her giddy at her success at explaining it, her cowlicks curling at the ends.

“I see…” Mercy said, “Okay, so what if I know someone’s real name? Can I just use it as I wish?”

“Did ya get permission first?” Molly asked.

“No.” Mercy answered.

“Then no.” she replied, “Even if ya know it, ya need ta get permission from th’ person before ya can jus’ start sayin’ it. It’s jus’ common decency… tha’ ‘n usually anyone who jus’ uses people’s names without their say so end up dead.” Roadhog and Junkrat nodded, confirming this.

“I see, so…” she pointed to Rat, “If I knew Junkrat’s real name, and I do, I could not use it without him giving me permission to do so.”

“Roight.” The three of them said in unison.

“Okay, so another question I have is when _exactly_ do you consider Junker kids as adults?” She asked. Molly looked to them for that one, Junkrat motioned to himself, as if questioning if Hog was fine with him answering. He nodded and Rat began to answer her, “Depends, blokes get ‘um ‘round th’ toime they’re going through puberty ‘n girls get ‘um after they…” he paused and looked down at Molly awkwardly before whispering in Mercy’s ear, her eyes widening.

“What?” Molly asked him, a bit put out that he was keeping vital information from her, “Girls get their Junker names after what?” Junkrat told her that she wasn’t ready to hear it yet and apologized, which he was glad for, cause if Junkrat had said in front of Molly that it was usually after the girl’s first period because the girls literally would just bleed for about three to five days straight and live, he probably would have decked him. Molly pouted, “How will ya know if I do what I havta do ta get ma Junker name if I don’ know what I have ta do either?” she asked.

“Trust me, Molls, you’ll probably tell someone about it when it happens.” Junkrat assured her.

Molly continued to pout, but nodded before Rat changed the topic and asked her to show him all the cool stuff she got today, making a smile return to her face as she led the way back to her room, him swinging his shower tote as they talked.

“So, when she _does_ qualify to get her Junker name, would you like me to explain why…” she began, him stopping her with a, “Yes!” then added a, “Please.” She chuckled as they made their way back, Molly stopping in front of Symmetra’s room on the way to hers, “Oh, roight, Hog, you still wanna ask Symmetra for help with organizin’?”

Rat looked at him, silently pleading, only for him to say, “Nah, we should prob’ly clean yer new clothes ‘fore we put ‘um away anyways, we can ask ‘er ta help with tha’ tomorrow.”

His partner in crime scowled but said nothing as Molly nodded, handing Hog her toy before peeking up at her uncle with a wide, toothy, mischievous grin, her cowlicks spread out on her head until only the tips of her hair were visible on the sides of her head, a look he’d seen on Cheshire enough times to know that her daughter was up to no good, “Since Brigitte ‘n Symmetra are busy, can we get Torb ‘n you two can show me how ta build a bomb now?”

And before Mercy could say, “No.” The burned tipped blonde’s face spread into a matching grin before he scooped her up and raced towards the workshop, “’Course we can!” he cackled as they turned the corner, the balloon trailing behind them as they left, his shower tote forgotten outside her door. She reached out to the two, only for Hog to place a massive hand on her shoulder, “Let ‘um go.” He said, “Better tha’ they use tha’ energy fer learnin’ than ta get Symmetra all hot ‘n bothered.”

She let her hand fall to her side, but her expression didn’t change. He gently used the massive hand he left on her shoulder to slowly guide her towards the kitchen, “Come on, ya said you’ve been roastin’ all day, let’s get ya something nice ‘n cool ta drink ‘fore dinner.” She sighed, but went where he’d wanted her to go without a fight.


	11. Uncertainty and bad pick up lines

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mercy wonders if she really should've told Molly to tell everyone tonight and Lena is really bad at pick up lines.

Angela poked at her meal, nervous, she was feeling less and less like her plan to reveal Molly’s little secret to the others was a good idea the more she thought about it.

She told her that her powers were linked to her emotions. As in, if she became stressed or nervous about what the others might think, there was more of a risk of her accidently hurting someone, which would probably make this girl’s confidence with her ability much more dangerous and unstable. (at least her wanna-be kidnapper had been handed over to the proper authorities already, so that wasn’t as much of an issue at the moment)

Why hadn’t she just taken everyone aside and told them all herself tomorrow while Molly would be busy doing other things? Or kept her mouth shut and didn’t tell Jack via text message earlier that she and Molly would bring new information about why she had been considered a weapon tonight in the first place?

She held back a sigh as she looked around the cafeteria, the room wasn’t completely filled, but everyone who worked there was present, even Orisa and Bastion, who often spent their time in the hanger instead managed to squeeze inside, much to some of the team’s distain. She found her eyes lingering over at the table where the child in question sat with Roadhog, Junkrat, Hana, Lùcio, Mei and Zarya. She seemed a bit nervous when she came in to get food, only for her to eventually be distracted when Mei and Zarya, two avid lovers of cold and snow, heard she had never seen it nor did she know very much about it. The three y-chromosome holders at the table also mentioned not being too familiar with snow either, since they were far more used to warmer climates, leading the two to begin talking about how wonderful it was and all the fun things they could do in it, Hana piping in when she could.

She was now too enraptured with tales of snowball fights, making snow angels, sledding down steep hills, catching snowflakes on her tongue and making snow forts to worry about revealing why she had been labeled a weapon. And that made her feel a bit relieved, or it would if she hadn’t noticed Roadhog tilting his head a bit as if to look right at her, curious as to what was so nerve-wrecking about what they planned to reveal.

“Are you alright, Angela?” Sym-_Satya_ asked from beside her, making her jump a bit. They had asked each other to call them by their real names while out shopping and it was going to take a bit of time to get used to it, but the fact that she was reaching out at all was a comfort, she had been quite worried at first when the girl had hardly spoken to anyone the first few days she was here. She eventually warmed up to everyone, but still, there were times when she kept her distance, probably due to Vishkar. She didn’t have a good feeling about that superior of hers, what was his name… Sanjay something? He seemed to be a bit shady and more than a bit manipulative when it came to their orderly comrade and she couldn’t bring herself to trust him.

The others at her table, Jesse, Fareeha, Lena, Hanzo, Genji and Zenyatta, seemed a bit surprised by her reaction to Satya’s question.

“Oh, sorry, yes. I’m fine, I’m just a bit anxious about our big reveal after dinner.” She explained, hoping the Vishkar employee would not delve deeper into why she was so anxious.

“Understandable.” Satya understood, “I believe we’re all a bit eager to know what you two are going to tell us tonight.”

“Yeah.” Jesse smiled as he gently elbowed her in the ribs, “it’s about time we knew more about ‘lil Molly.”

“Agreed!” Genji announced cheerfully, “You two have got me on the edge of my seat!” And promptly scooted closer to the table to put himself on the edge of his seat to make his point, making Lena and Jesse giggle when he rubbed his butt on the edge for emphasis.

Hanzo looked pensive for a moment, staring the child down from across the room. She caught sight of the elder Junkers out of the corner of her eyes and saw them take note of this and glare back defensively before Zenyatta wisely chose to step in before the two criminals decided to come over and make him reveal just why exactly he was staring at the little ‘ankle biter’ like that, “Is there something you wish to discuss on the topic, Hanzo?”

The eldest dragon brother showed no sign of talking for a moment as the others looked at him, wondering what he wanted to know before letting out a sigh, turning to face them and finally asking what was on his mind, “What exactly led to this discovery? We haven’t had much new information from the child in quite a while, so I am quite interested on how you two stumbled upon it.”

She gently rubbed the spot where her sweater hid her bruise, “When we went to clean her up in the bathroom after catching that woman earlier, we talked a bit and some pieces fell together.” She winced a bit as pain trickled under her fingers and she pulled her hand away, “Apparently there are many things Molly has buried in her mind to keep herself from falling apart.” She elaborated. The table’s atmosphere darkened a bit at that.

“I’m sorry for bringing it up.” Hanzo apologized.

“No, no.” She said, “It’s perfectly understandable why you’d be curious about that, I mean, you are right. Other than telling us about some of the things they did to her in that lab, some of her medical records and her living in the lab and that safe for her entire life, we do know very little about her or what Hyde was up to for all those years.”

“So are we going to learn more about her or what Hyde was doing?” Fareeha asked. Angela felt her throat thicken and she opened her mouth to speak, only for Zenyatta to put his hand up in front of her, permitting her to stay silent as he looked to the younger Egyptian, “Patience.” He said, his voice calm and his aura just as relaxing as ever, “Even if the good Doctor knows this secret, it is not hers to reveal. We must wait until young Molly is ready to tell us.”

‘But will she be ready when dinner is done?’ She asked herself, feeling guilty for putting such a short time limit on this whole thing.

“Yeah!” Lena agreed before looking at her, “’N no offense, love, but Molly prob’ly knows more about whatever you two are going to tell us than you do.”

She finally felt a laugh escape her lips, even though it was half hearted at best, “You’re quite right about that…” she looked over to her from across the room as Zarya and Mei mimed a snowball fight and explained the rules of a proper one, “But will she be able to tell us what she does know before shutting down?” she asked aloud.

“What do you mean?” Genji asked, “Didn’t she want to reveal this herself?”

She shook her head, “She was afraid to, but she knew she’d have to eventually, she can’t keep hiding them like she hid her nosebleeds until now. Eventually, it will all have to come out. I merely suggested we do so today to get it out of the way and so we could find a way to help her sooner.” Angela cradled her head in her hands, “But now I’m wondering if I may have done something I shouldn’t have.”

“If I may?” Zenyatta asked, all eyes at the table turning to him, “But what makes you regret your decision?”

“… I am not certain, but…” she sighed as she pulled her head out of her arms, “it’s probably because, now that I’ve had time to think about it, I’ve realized that my telling her to reveal it today could make her feel uncomfortable and uneasy. It could make her feel trapped or scared, she’s had no time to really prep us for this information, let alone prepated to tell us all and that could end badly. And to be frank, I honestly had no right to decide when she should tell everyone in the first place, it’s her secret, not mine.”

The table seemed to digest it for a moment before Zenyatta asked, “Well, if that is the case, then what drove you to tell her to reveal it to us all in the first place?”

She stopped to think about that, her fingers on her temples much like Molly’s would whenever she had a headache.

Why had she told her she’d reveal it today… wait…

“You gonna tell th’ others what I did?”

Molly had been the first to suggest to expose her secret to them, not her. She only wanted her suspicions confirmed, she’d had no desire to reveal them until the child was ready to share . But when Molly asked her if she was going to tell the others, she figured that it would probably be for the best, that it was better to get it taken care of and out of the way so they could move on to help her control her powers better and get a handle on those headaches and nosebleeds.

“Because Molly was the one who brought up telling everyone else, not me.” She finally said, “She simply asked if I was going to tell you all. I figured that, since she didn’t plead with me to keep it between us that she wanted to get it over with and that it would be better to do this quickly and get her help than to try to help her keep it from everyone so I suggested we do it today, but she didn’t fight it, despite being so scared of it.”

Zenyatta nodded, serene as usual, “Then let your doubt fall away to the winds.” He suggested, “The child would not have asked you about revealing whatever was bothering her if she intended to keep it locked away in her heart forever. You gave her guidance when she needed it most and I believe that your suggestion will certainly help her in the long run.”

Angela felt her doubt and unease slip away a bit at his words and a smile tug at the corners of her mouth, “Thank you, Zenyatta. I feel much better about all this now.” The omnic gave her a small nod before looking to Molly, “Perhaps I should give her something to help keep her nerves in check as well?” he mused as he plucked one of the orbs that circled his body, the metal oozing out a calming, golden aura, “I doubt her favorite teachers would appreciate it, but perhaps if I explain my intentions…”

“It is too dangerous.” Genji interjected, defensive of his own teacher.

“But it’s not a bad idea.” She countered. Genji shook his head, “They only see my Sensei as a target, not a friend.” He said sternly, “They do not trust any of the omnics here, even though Molly herself does not fear or dislike them.”

“The child also has not experienced the outside world until recently.” His brother argued, “She does not know of the omnic crisis and why the world views them so harshly. She hardly knew of simple acts of endearment before arriving here.”

“It’s true, she didn’t know what hugs or kisses were.” Jesse confirmed. Satya’s eyes widened in understanding at the information before her cheeks turned pink.

“Poor thing never saw the sky before until we got ‘er.” Lena added softly.

“And let’s not forget,” Zenyatta said, “Molly is not someone who experienced the wrath of my brothers and sisters all those years ago. And the Junkers are not the only ones who are not comfortable in our presence. How am I to change this if I do not even try to reach out?” he asked his pupil, who scowled at his tray, unable to answer.

“If it will make you feel better,” Satya offered, finally speaking after such a long silence, “I could go with him as well, the Junkers are comfortable with me…”

“But not Lúcio.” Fareeha pointed out.

“But he doesn’t have any problems with Omnics.” Jesse reminded her, “I mean, he and Zen here are the reason we ended up having that tea party outside, remember?”

“I can go too!” Lena suggested, “I wanted to ask if I can borrow that crown again for when I call Emily tonight, anyways!” she informed them.

“Only if you don’t pour anymore water on Junkrat.” Angela found herself teasing, getting confused looks from the others, Satya blushing even more and Lena smiling impishly at her, “No promises!” she sang as she hopped up from the table, Satya and Zenyatta carefully getting up from the table to join her as she dashed over to the Junker’s table, waving excitedly when she got their attention while Jesse slipped into Zenyatta’s spot on Genji’s left and Hanzo murmuring something to his younger brother from his right, both probably making sure that he didn’t help to start a fight while watching his master interact with those who were not fond of his kind.

And while the elder Junkers and Zarya seemed cautious of his offer of a harmony orb, Molly happily accepted it, in awe of the golden glow and how it circled around her without being told to, Satya explaining that it was to help combat any stage fright Molly might get later to the three skeptics.

“What’s stage fright?” Angela could hear her ask from the other side of the room.

“It’s when ya suddenly can’t remember what ya wanted ta say in front of lots of people!” Lena explained loudly, “I had a really bad case in eighth grade during the school play, I was playing Peter Pan and I couldn’t remember a single line I had memorized!” She then put on a frantic expression as she leaned against the table, looked at Mei and said, “I, uh, lost ma shadow, can I borrow yours?”

They laughed at that and Lúcio informed her that her fudged line sounded like the worst pick up line ever, leading the conversation to head in that direction while she saw Molly lean over and whisper something to Zenyatta, the bot carefully placing his hand on her head and ruffling her hair, probably due to the fact that he’d seen Roadhog and Junkrat do that to her often and figured it was something she was comfortable with, “Of course you can. Simply let me know when you are up for it and I’ll ask Athena to keep you informed if we do so in the future.” She smiled and nodded as he floated back to their table, Lena and Satya staying behind as the others at Molly’s table tried out some truly awful one-liners on them.

“See?” he said serenely, “Forgiveness is a long journey, but each step is one towards harmony and acceptance.”

Genji nodded stiffly before Jesse changed the subject and Angela was finally was able to eat without feeling her stomach twist and turn in guilt and panic.

Everything would be just fine…

Right?


	12. Smoke bombs 'n sentiments

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rat decides to be a bro and help Lena feel a bit better after she hears about her girlfriend being in danger and the group makes a joke that might actually hit closer to home than they realize.

Junkrat sat in the drop ship along with Roadhog, McCree, Lúcio, Genji, Hanzo, Morrison and Lena on their way to King’s Cross in London.

Apparently Widowmaker and Reaper had been seen roaming around and, while it did help curb the riots a bit, having two international criminals with a grudge against Overwatch lounging around where Lena’s girlfriend lived, unprotected, had made the poor Pommy freak out after Emily had called in a panic, saying she’d been getting harassing phone calls ever since she’d gotten home and Athena reported them being spotted in the area.

So Winston pushed back the debriefing from the ‘mission’ to find the person who came to their beautiful island home on Hyde’s dime and get information on them, as well as whatever information Molly was going to give them when they all finished eating until later and old Soldier 76 began barking orders, eventually leading to him and Hog watching Molly give everyone who was leaving a hug in the hanger after practically throwing their gear into the plane, quietly asking them all to come back safely and beat the bad guys up good while trying really hard not to cry.

Which was great, because when he and Hog’d had gone on their first mission since finding her (and really the first mission they’d had since finding her), she had been sobbing hysterically, her cowlicks limp against her head, and had to be yanked off of them and dragged out of the hanger by Reinhardt, who had eventually soothed her with a cup of hot cocoa and a plate full of cookies and stories of epic battles of the past, the others either chuckling that she was so attached to them or sorry for her that she had to watch them leave and would probably be upset until they returned.

When Rat got his hug, he gently ruffled her hair, her dual cowlicks popping up between his fingers as he did so, and promised not only come home safe, but that he’d bring her back a souvenir.

She didn’t know what that was, not surprisingly, so he quickly explained that it was a special present and that she’d know it when she saw it so she could hug her Daddy without the grumpy geezer, who had already hopped onto the plane after getting all embarrassed when she hugged him, wouldn’t try to rush Hog’s hug by ordering them on the ship pronto in the middle of it.

Molly spent a good extra minute or two more hugging Hog’s leg than she had hugged the rest of them, pouting a bit before he told her that they’d be fine and to maybe think of something to cheer this Emily girl up when she got here. Molly finally pulled away and nodded, Hog leaning down and mumbling softly to her, making her smile softly and promise she would be good while they were gone.

“But not too good, alroight?” he laughed, “Keep ‘um on their toes!” He could see Hog rolling his eyes at him through his mask before the white haired commander told them to ‘get on the ship and let’s move!’ and they waved good bye to the others, promising to be back soon.

Molly had been determined to watch the plane leave so she could wave good bye to them all as they left (the past few times they’d done it, they’d wisely had someone else keeping her preoccupied and didn’t tell her until after they left, it made her upset, but they also didn’t have to drag her out), even when the others said it wasn’t safe and told her to follow them inside and everything, but Zarya managed to put her dislike of Omnics aside to team up with Bastion and drag her out of the hanger, with a surprising degree of difficulty this time, much to their surprise, it would seem Molly had gained some muscle since her time with them as well as excellent wiggling skills since the first time she’d been dragged out.

When she was finally out of the hanger, Lena got them in the air as fast as she could, flying through her usual safety checks and practically sending them all slamming into the back of the plane as she hit the throttle and shot them into the air without even warning them to buckle up like she normally did.

After that, the trip was almost like a normal one before a mission, although, the lack of a proper meeting before hand and such was new, but Junkrat was fine with that. He never really paid attention during those meetings anyways, but he was curious as to why Morrison had picked the six of them to cover him and Lena as they went to pick up Emily. Luckily for him, McCree decided to ask in his place, “Hey Jack, why’d ya pick us for this mission?”

“Yeah.” He piped in, “Don’ think Hog ‘n me’ll be welcomed back in good ole England.” Morrison winced at that, showing that he’d forgotten about that Junker’s worldwide crime spree had gone through a certain Royal family’s trove of treasures, but cleared his throat and voiced his reasons in his usual stern tone, “You two are not the only criminals on this ship.”

“Yeah,” Lúcio said, “I was wondering why you’d only picked those of us with criminal records.”

“Trust me, I wasn’t thinking of your criminal records when I picked you six.” He assured them

“Obviously.” Rat commented, “Or ya probably wouldn’ of picked us.” He said, indicating himself and his fellow Junker.

“I picked you two because your hook and explosives give you two more ways to move around and avoid capture and injury.” He looked at the Shimatas and Lúcio, “That’s why I picked you three as well, we need to be quick and have lots of ways to move around, either to get away from them or to get to one another to ward them off.”

“Then why am I here?” McCree asked, obviously a little put out.

“Because we need two people to keep Lena and Emily safe…”

“Excuse you!” Lena exclaimed from behind them as she walked out from the cockpit, “I can take care of myself _and_ Emily!”

“Even from a sniper like Widowmaker?” he asked her, pointing to her Chronal Accelerator, “This thing may be able to save you from being shot, but not Emily. Let’s not forget that Reaper can’t be stopped so easily.” He paused, then looked to McCree again, “What did it take to take him out last time?” he asked him.

McCree looked at Lena apologetically before replying, “Two shots to the face with Peacemaker, an icicle to the chest and three shots in the back from Ana’s rifle before he was finally taken out by one of those big ass canon shots from Bastion.” Morrison looked to the usually cheerful Pommy, his expression stern, “Can you do that much damage alone, let alone while protecting someone who is unarmed and not trained in combat?” The woman winced and looked down, frustrated as she murmured out a ‘no…’

He sighed, gently placing a hand on her shoulder, “I’m sorry, Lena, we just want you and Emily to be safe, can’t be too careful with those two around.” She nodded, her head sunk deep into her chest and sniffling as if she was about to cry, before murmuring about going back to the cockpit and needing to be alone for a bit. Morrison let her go before explaining the basics of his plan to the guys.

After he was done, Hog pulled out a book from his back pocket and began reading it, but Rat?

He looked to the cockpit for a moment, thoughtful. Should he… should he try to make her feel better?

Maybe. But how? He doubted she’d be in the mood to listen to him go on or crack jokes… And it wasn’t as if he could just let her blow something up at the moment or… he paused as an idea hit him, a large smile curling up his cheeks into a toothy grin.

The Pommy might not be able to hold either of the two High Ranking Talon agents off on her own, but he might have something that could help. After taking a moment to double check to see if he still had what he was thinking of on him, he made his way to the cockpit, earning a snippy and sniffly “I said I needed ta be…!” from her before plopping down in the seat beside her with a “Tha’s a foine ‘how do ya do’.” This surprised her, obviously he had not been the one she thought would come up to talk to her.

“Oh! Sorry, Rat! Wasn’t expecting you ‘ere.” She said, wiping stale tears off of her cheeks, her smile strained, but it was better than the nearly tearful expression she’d had on before.

“Figured as much.” He replied, before leaning back into the seat, “Th’ only other time I’ve been up ‘ere with ya was when we were bringing Molly home with us.” She paused pensively at that, her eyes lighting up at the memory, “Oh yeah, that’s roight.” She said before her smile became genuine again and she gently punched his shoulder, “Ya nearly blew us up ta bits!” she accused, and while the sudden change in mood in the woman was a bit odd, he was glad that she was smiling like she normally did again.

“No I didn’!” He argued playfully, “I knew what I was doin’!” he then reached into his pockets and held up a small pouch, “Speakin’ of knowin’ what ‘m doin’, ‘ere.” He said, holding it out for her, “Smoke bombs.” He explained, “Our bombs would be too dangerous ta toss in those narrow alleyways, ‘n since we’re dealin’ with a sniper ‘ere, it’s prob’ly best ta have somethin’ ta help throw ‘um off, yeah? Jus’ get Emily ta grab a lighter or somethin’ ‘fore ya leave yer flat. Still need ta light ‘um ta work.”

Lena looked at him, surprised and touched by his consideration, her eyes watering a bit again, “… I…” she wiped at her eyes and smiled warmly, “Thanks, Rat.” She said softly.

“Don’ thank jus’ me.” He said, beaming with pride, “Molly made some of ‘um too. Torb ‘n me taught ‘er how ta make ‘um, she made th’ green ones.” Lena excitedly opened the pouch and saw that is was filled with tiny orange balls with little black smiley faces on them, a few green ones sat among them, with what looked like…

“Are these fireflies on ‘um?” she asked him, carefully pulling out a green one, a yellow orb floating around a wobbily looking bug. He shrugged, “Well, yeah, she made ‘um so it ain’ roight ta slap me smiley faces on ‘um…” he paused, realizing that admitting that to her might make the two women of the workshop very cross with him and Torb if she let that slip out in front of them, he quickly blurted, “But tha’ don’ mean I let ‘er do nothin’ dangerous! Didn’ let ‘er weld them together or nothin’ loike tha’ jus’ let ‘er paint th’ outsides ‘n put th’ insides together!”

“Alroight, but why fireflies?” Lena asked.

“Cause Molly’s been learnin’ everythin’ she can ‘bout ‘um ta make little robot bugs tha’ glow loike they do ta help us see when workin’ at noight.” He explained, “She’s been drawin’ um all th’ toime, so when I told ‘er she could paint whatever she wanted on some of me empty shells fer when we could finally teach ‘er ‘n she painted tha’ on there. No big deal… Just don’t tell ‘Metra or Brigitte tha’s why I let ‘er paint what she wanted on me spare shells, alroight?”

“Why not?” she asked.

He sighed as he rubbed the back of his head, “Cause, I told ‘um it was ‘cause I was going to weld them together ‘n hide them ‘round th’ base so she could have somethin’ fun ta do when we’re on missions.” He explained sheepishly. Lena giggled and promised not to tell before a voice on her radio sounded and she motioned for him to go back to the others and mouthing, “Thanks again, love.” Before picking it up and speaking into it.

Junkrat had obeyed, returning to the others. Hog was still reading his book, although, he had his large phone out on the table nearby, most likely in case Molly called him for some reason, or maybe she’d called already, he wasn’t sure. Morrison was talking with Winston, apparently the ape had gotten some pretty interesting information and it seemed to put a smile on the old man’s face, which was a good sign. The other four men on the ship had started a game of cards and happily counted him in along with Hog and 76, who had finished his phone call.

They’d played about five rounds before Lena informed them that they would be landing shortly and for him to feel his ears pop from the quick changes in pressure as they practically plummeted towards the ground. They all took a moment to recover while Lena hopped out of the plane and ordered a van for rental and had nearly gotten behind the wheel before Hanzo stepped in and offered to do it for her.

Hanzo driving didn’t just save them from any risky driving Lena had planned to do but also let Morrison have a chance to scold Lena on the way to King’s Cross for being so reckless with their lives earlier on the plane when they were all going to there in the first place to help her relocate Emily to somewhere safe for a while, Hog grunting in about how she wasn’t the only one with someone waiting on her to come home and to calm down. She sank her head back into her chest guiltily, “Sorry, loves, just nervous…”

“We know, Lena.” McCree cooed, gently patting her on the back, “Jus’ slow down a bit on the trip back, alright? We can handle that, but I doubt that yer girl can do the same.”

Lena chuckled as she shook her head, “She can’t go on rollercoasters without feelin’ sick.” She confirmed.

“Speaking of rollercoasters…” Lúcio said, apparently deciding that it would be a good time for a subject change (and good on him for it), “Hana and I have been making a list of a bunch of stuff we think would be good for Molly to try.” He pulled out his phone and began typing, “Going to a theme park sometime with everyone would be a good one to add, also thinking of bringing her to the Halloween event next month.” He said, “Apparently Molly and Hana have already began picking out costumes for everyone.”

“You sure she could handle being around that many people at once?” Hanzo asked from the front seat, “Just because she did alright today while shopping, it was during the day while most people are often at work, it doesn’t mean she could handle thousands of strangers, especially since she is a target right now.”

“I know...” The DJ pouted, “But I think she’d like scaring people for candy.”

“I know I would.” Rat commented cheerfully, making the others chuckle, “You would!” Lena laughed in agreement.

“There are other places she can go on the island to help get her used to it.” Morrison reminded them, “There are plenty of museums and military sights…”

“That’s boring!” Genji said plainly, “Why not take her to that Leisure Center? It’s got bowling, skating, arcades, movies and good food!” he held up his phone, showing them the list on the screen, “According to their website.”

“I haven’t been there yet either.” McCree said, silently motioning for Genji to let him see his phone, which he did. “Me neither.” Lena said, “Maybe we can all go there on Sunday? Molly might even be able ta make a friend ‘er age while we’re there.”

“Not so sure ‘bout tha’.” Hog replied.

“Why not?” Lúcio asked, “Not like she’s shy.”

“It’s not tha’.” Roadie clarified, “I don’ think she’s seen many other kids before. Won’ know how ta act ‘round ‘um.” He said.

“She’ll be foine.” Junkrat promised, “She probably saw some while at Hyde, won’ be loike she’s never seen or spoken ta another kid before.”

“Rat, none of them knew how to talk back at Hyde, so she never _has_ spoken to another kid before.” He reminded him, a little annoyed.

“Oh yeah. Forgot ‘bout tha’.” He said sheepishly. The mountainous man mumbling about how he was a drongo under his breath, not that he could really argue that right now.

“It’ll be fine.” McCree assured them all, “In case ya haven’t noticed, Molly’s pretty sharp. I mean, she wouldn’t be talking in full sentences like she has been otherwise.”

“She’s also quite good at reading people.” Hanzo observed, “Almost as if she knows what we are thinking…”

“That’s impossible.” Old 76 shot down, “Mind reading and all that is nothing but a hoax.”

“I dunno.” Lúcio argued, “Molly’s figured stuff out or has known things that we wouldn’t have said out loud.” He smiled and put his fingers on his temples, “For all we know, that could be what Hyde was doing, making an army of super powerful psychics!”

“That sounds more like a bad old movie!” Lena laughed. Rat laughed along with the others, but noticed Hog was silent, seemingly deep in thought. And so was Morrison.

He laughed nervously as he stared at them, concerned that they hadn’t brushed it off like a joke. It was just a joke, right?

There was no way Molly was some sort of powerful psychic soldier…

Right?


	13. I ain' afriad of no ghosts (ya drongo)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hog wonders about the joke from the last chapter, the group deals with Talon and tries to save Emily, and Rat and Genji apparently found a present for Molly.

Roadhog took in Lúcio’s theory in with a grain of salt, after all, was it any crazier than what they could say about anyone else in Overwatch? Heck, right here and now they had a man who was supposed to be dead, a fucking cowboy, a ninja, a cyborg ninja, a man who could skate on walls and heal physical wounds with music, a woman who could literally go backwards and forwards through time and two men from a post apocalyptic and radioactive Australian Outback.

All in the same fucking car.

So would it be so difficult to believe that, through the power of science that Molly could have been born with some sort of psychic ability? After all, they had floating cars, rays of light that could heal horrible wounds in seconds and the ability to make things out of nothing just with a few flicks of your fingers, and, heck their _talking, hyper intellegent gorilla boss _had made a device to keep their chipper time traveler from drifting in and out of time and space forever…

So, yeah. It was totally possible for her to be made to eventually be some sort of psychic soldier, it wasn’t ethical, but there were always that one group of people who said, ‘fuck ethics’ and did whatever they wanted, no matter how many people they would go on to hurt. Hyde had already proven themselves to be bastards, and Mercy said they’d done an invasive brain surgery for no reason on Molly, so that could be why they would bother, making sure her brain was fine (maybe, Mercy said brain scans could do the same thing without cracking the kid’s skull open).

And it would explain how both the vending machine and the glass at the clothing shop earlier today had been broken, yet no one had gotten hurt. It would explain how she knew about Symmetra liking Rat’s freckles so much despite her not telling anyone about that and how she’d known Symmetra would be the one Ana chose for Rat to French kiss and as well as help her win that bet. (She had claimed she had followed her gut, but he had a feeling it was more than just that from her inability to look at him when she told him that.) There were many other times too, but those were ones he could easily pick up on as odd outliers. The ones he couldn’t find a rational explanation for, the ones where only the unusual could explain it.

Rat elbowed him out of his thoughts and informed him that they were in King’s Cross, he grunted in response before watching the lanky man hop out of the car along with the young DJ and the cyborg swordsman. He got out last, Morrison directing him, Rat, Lúcio, Hanzo and Genji to get a bird’s eye view while he and McCree would escort Tracer to the flat via the narrow alleyways that weaved through the old buildings…

Only for a gunshot to hit right above their heads, Morrison hissing that it was Widowmaker and to “Move!” Only for a few more well placed shots to block them off on both sides.

“I ‘ave you in my sights.” A woman’s voice hissed through the foggy, English air.

“Well, we’re screwed.” The cowboy commented.

Lena grabbed the smoking cigar that McCree had managed to light within the maybe five seconds he’d been out of the car and lit what looked like one of Rat’s smoke bombs, only, this one was green, not the usual shade of orange his friend adorned on them, and flung it to the ground.

The smoke spread immediately and the Pommy cried out that they should, “SCATTER!”

Well, she didn’t need to tell him twice.

Hog found himself along side the young Brazilian as they dashed into a nearby alleyway, him having to shove the boy down with a hand on his head to squat along the scattered trashcans and garbage for cover, just in case. They had run through the maze of narrow paths with his lungs struggling to keep up the demand for oxygen in his body as they did so. Eventually, they ended up running past a bit of anti omnic graffiti under a brick bridge and found an opening opposite it into a small room like area that seemed to have another opening further in. While Hog didn’t get why people would design a space like this, it was a safe place to stop and check in with the others to regroup, grab Lena’s girlfriend and get out of there so he couldn’t complain.

The two slipped inside and leaned against the cool brick wall, both panting as quietly as they could as they shimmied close to the walls and peaked out of the doorways, the younger man turning on his comm., “Lúcio calling in,” he whispered, “Hog and I are clear, what’s your status?”

“Junkrat and I are clear as well.” Genji reported.

“Fucking snipers.” Rat hissed into the comm.

“Gee, Rat, tell us how you really feel.” Lúcio challenged.

“Don’ encourage h-“ Hog began only for Rat’s voice to boom through the comm., “SNIPERS ARE NOTHIN’ BUT DIPSTICKS!” Then a pause, “‘Cept fer Ana, she’s a true Cobber.” Hog had to agree with that, and he saw Lúcio nod as well, so he didn’t feel too bad about it.

“Ehem.” Hanzo cleared his throat over the comm.

“’N ‘m still pissed ‘bout th’ whole you shootin’ me in th’ arse ‘cause you ‘n th’ cowboy decided ta get shit faced ‘n fuck around with yer bow ‘n gun!” He growled back.

“… Yeah, that was our bad.” McCree agreed.

“_You_ were the one who shot him in the ass?” Genji blurted, shocked.

“Lena and I are clear and are heading towards the objective.” Hanzo quickly informed them, most likely to change the subject as Lena giggled in the background and told him how he was ‘_so busted!’_, “We will let you know when the situation changes.”

“Roger that.” 76 said firmly, “We’re under cover for now, but she’s got a nest up above a nearby bar. We’re going to try to smoke her out.”

“Need a hand?” Rat offered eagerly, Hog could easily picture the enthusiastic smile on his face as he spoke.

“If yer willin’.” McCree replied.

“Which bar is it?” Genji asked.

Hog never got to hear what bar it was, because he was too busy noticing the materializing Reaper behind the Brazilian thief, gun at the ready behind the boy’s head. Hog hooked the boy and yanked him out of his line of fire and the bullet hit the ground with a loud bang. “WE’VE FOUND REAPER!” the boy cried into the comm. Hog threw him over his shoulder and fled the little room and quickly raced up a nearby stairwell, the masked phantom firing wildly at them, but Lúcio fired up his amp, music flowing through the streets and making a green glow circle around them and Hog felt his body move faster than it normally would (and he was actually quite quick, despite what most people assumed he would be with his bulk) allowing them to race past without being hit, the shots bouncing uselessly against brick... until one ricocheted and hit Hog in the ass. He let out a hiss and a low curse as he put the DJ down near the top of the stairs before they both opened fire at the villain below, making him seek refuge in the same space they had been. They emptied their guns and dashed on ahead, reloading as they turned the corner for cover and for Hog to check his wound, 76’s voice now finally audible over the roar of the adrenaline pumping through his veins and the pops of Reaper’s shotguns.

“RESPOND, GOD DAMMIT!” he shouted into their ears.

“We’re under fire!” rumbled Hog, “We ain’ in th’ best spot fer a chat.”

“Either of you been hit?”

“… Yeah.” Hog admitted, already feeling the soon to be annoying teasing that was sure to happen in a few seconds, “bullet hit me in th’ ass.” He revealed.

“Already got a healing groove on.” Lúcio announced, the music changing and the green aura surrounding them changed into one of gold, his ass not feeling as if it was on fire as much.

“I hear it!” Lena cried, “We’re close! Maybe we can give you two a little wiggle room!”

The dreadlocked DJ leaned out from behind the corner, letting out a few shots before jerking backwards, barely missing a bullet to the face.

“How far?” He asked.

“He’s half way up the stairs.” He squeaked, still recovering from nearly losing his mug to a small hunk of flying metal. Hog silently wished Rat was here with them, a few traps or explosives could help them put more distance between them would be really great now or one of his stupid distractions. He nearly laughed at himself, yeah, he was never going to tell him _that_ either. It would go to his head so fucking fast…

He instead pushed the boy aside and shot a few bolts of scrap at the dual shotgun wielder before slipping back behind cover and ordering Lúcio to “move” and shoved him forwards, they needed to lose him, and the best way to do that was to move forward to a new intersection and hope Lena and Hanzo’s wiggle room will help all of them get out safely instead of just passing the creep off to them.

Lúcio dashed on ahead, covering Hog as he dashed forward, Reaper floating behind him, guns out and untangible.

“FIRE IN THE HOLE!” Lena shouted from somewhere up above as she flung a few smoke bombs down on them, her voice echoing through the area.

“Oi! Tha’s my line!” Rat snapped over the comm., “If yer goin’ ta do it, at least give ‘um a laugh!” She obliged, her laugh bouncing against brick and stone as the smoke billowed and he and Lúcio dashed into a random alley farthest away from their starting point.

“Tha’s bettah.” The metal maniac approved, Hanzo’s scatter arrows pinging around in the distance.

“You clear?” Hog asked into the comm.

“Yes.” Hanzo replied.

“We’re clear too.” McCree said, “If anyone cares.”

“You were foine, we had ya.” Rat brushed off, “I mean, Genji ‘ere pushed ‘er off th’ roof, but I made ‘er lean towards th’ alleyway in th’ first place.”

“And did you see her face when she landed in that trashcan?” Genji laughed.

“Got ‘er ass stuck in it fer a second there ‘fore… ‘fore…” Rat couldn’t even finish his sentence he and Genji were laughing too hard, the few things they got that were close to words from those two laughing buffoons were garbled nonsense.

“That doesn’t mean we can let our guards down. Lúcio, get Roadhog to the car and keep healing him. Hanzo, Tracer, get Emily, Genji, Junkrat, you two meet the others back at the car while McCree and I cover Hanzo and Tracer from the rooftops, we’ll meet you all back in the car.” The old soldier ordered.

“Got it.” Lúcio replied.

He and the kid kept their eyes peeled as they made their way back to the rental, his ass slowly healing and not bleeding as badly, but he now had a hole in the back of his pants that he’d need to patch when they got home. He grumbled at that and hoped that Rat wouldn’t give him a hard time about the shot to the ass (especially since he’d been pretty mean about the arrow he took to his own) and hoping that Mercy and Molly wouldn’t freak out (they probably would) only to find that Genji and Rat had beaten them to the car… and that they were not alone.

“What th’ fuck is tha’?” Hog asked as he pointed to what had to be the _ugliest _dog he’d ever seen. It looked like someone took a bulldog and a basset hound, plopped them both into a blender and forgot to put chunks of it’s ears, a leg, the tip of it’s tail, what seemed to be a few teeth and patches of it’s fur back on when they were done mixing them up. Then they seemed to dunk it in garbage and mud and leave the balls on, cause, hey after everything else, it was the least they could do, right? At least let it think it’d have a chance to reproduce some day, it did seem to be rather young, despite it’s condition.

“It’s Molly’s souvenir.” Rat informed him with a grin before thumbing back to Genji, “We found ‘um hanging around a bunch of rubbish bins in an alleyway behind th’ pub tha’ sniper bitch was campin’ on.”

“Well, that explains the smell.” Lúcio said, pinching his nose and waving a hand in the air.

“In his defense, he peed on Widowmaker, and that has to take guts.” Genji replied. Lúcio paused, then nodded, the woman had no problem shooting her own husband after being reconditioned, he seemed to not have any doubts about her taking a shot at a dog if it pissed her off enough… or pissed on her enough, whichever happened first.

“Yer not seriously thinkin’ ta give tha’ ta my kid.” He growled.

“Oh come on!” Genji countered, “Dogs are great for kids! They teach responsibility and patience and they’re sweet and loyal and always happy to see you and kids love them!”

“Did you and Hanzo have one?” he asked.

“Nope.” he said, “I wanted one, but Hanzo kept wanting cats.” He paused, “Maybe if they’d let me get a dog, I’d have been more responsible...” He mused, “And no one would have sent Hanzo to try to kill me…”

“Come on, mate, Molly not killin’ any other kids ya moight have sounds loike a good reason ta me!” Rat agreed holding it closer to him, Hog nearly made a comment about him probably never having another kid other than Molly, but kept his mouth shut, knowing his pal would insist otherwise and tell him to stop doubting himself.

“And it might be good for her to have someone to play with when we’re all on missions. I mean, Brigitte doesn’t go on missions with us, but she might not be able to play with her all the time. That and my Aunts all have dogs, those things all wear my younger cousins out, and keep them out of trouble.” Lúcio listed, gaining smiles and thumbs up from the other two.

“Yeah, but do they have a Rat?” he asked him.

“Oi!” Rat snapped.

“Worse, we have my Uncle Pedro.” He countered. Hog looked around at the three younger men, all of whom were looking up at him expectantly. They couldn’t be serious about this? The ape would never allow it! He glanced back at the mangy mutt in his friend’s arms once more. Molly wouldn’t want a dog like this, would she?

He then suddenly remembered his mom bringing a stray dog home one day too, singing that she had a new friend for him who would always see what she saw in him. And the dog had to be the sweetest looking thing he’d ever seen, she had been the tinest and cutest cocker spaniel he’d ever laid his eyes one, he had no idea why anyone would be foolish enough to throw her away, but he certainly wouldn’t be as stupid! She quickly became his only friend during his childhood. He’d named her Hailey (after an actress he and his mom liked) and she was always by his side, defending him from bullies and licking away tears and playing with him until he was too tired to move, their favorite thing to do together was curl up under a shady tree in his backyard, him reading a book and rubbing her tummy while she plopped her head in his lap and took a nap. She was his best friend for over ten years after they got her, all the way up until the day she curled to nap under the shade of a nice tree to sleep while he read his book like they always did… and never woke up. He’d remembered crying over a spot in his backyard where he and his mom had given her a proper funeral, right under the tree, he remembered talking to her whenever he felt as if he couldn’t talk to his mom about something, like why he never knew his dad and why his mom never talked about him or why girls were so freaked out by him and stuff.

Hailey had been a great friend and he couldn’t believe he ever forgot about her. He looked at the dog before him. It wasn’t as beautiful a creature as Hailey, but maybe it was just as sweet as she had been.

There was only one way to find out.

He held out his hand for the dog, and it immediately began to wag what was left of his tail and licked his hand thoroughly until it was covered in slobber.

“Aw, he likes you.” Genji teased, making the other two children giggle as Hog waved his hand in an attempt to get some of the dog spit off before giving up and simply wiping the dog spit on his pants, wincing when he remembered that the hole the bullet had made was on the side he just wiped the spit on. Gross…

“What the hell is that?” McCree asked from across the way as he and Morrison joined them, Lena, a pretty red head he could only guess was Emily and Hanzo not too far behind.

“Molly’s souvenir.” The four of them replied in unison.

McCree gave Hog a concerned look, “Yer lettin’ this thing near yer kid?” he asked. Morrison said nothing and instead walked over to Rat and scratched the mutt behind it’s ears, the dog’s tail wagged even harder now and gave him a lick too.

“May not be the prettiest dog, but it’s a sweetheart, probably really good with kids.” The old man assessed. He looked to Rat and Genji, “Nice work.” Genji gave him a mock salute, Rat lifted one of the dog’s paws to salute their commander in his stead, making Lena and Emily chuckle while Hanzo looked at it with a face of disgust, just as unimpressed as McCree at the sight of the mangled mutt.

“Can I hold him?” Emily asked, her eyes sparkling in awe of the creature he was carrying.

“Sure!” Rat said, handing him over, “Might smell a bit, though…”

“Thanks,” she said, cradling the creature lovingly as if it was a swaddled infant, a large smile on her face, “And he doesn’t smell too bad. Then again, I love dogs so I might be just blocking it out.” She then nuzzled his nose with her own, “I used to have at least two of them at a time growing up. If our landlord wasn’t allergic, I’d have at least three of them in the flat with me to keep me company while Lena’s away. And to help me welcome her home, too!” she said with a soft laugh. Lena popped up beside her and gently scratched his stomach, making his tail wag like crazy, “He _is_ ugly, but at the same toime, he _is_ kinda cute.” She agreed.

McCree and Hanzo’s jaws dropped in unison, obviously baffled in what they all saw in this poor excuse for a pet, but, to their credit, they said nothing more about the dog’s appearance.

“Oh yeah, dogs are great for picking up chicks too!” Genji recalled cheerfully with a snap of his fingers, “That’s why I wanted one when I was a kid!” Morrison hummed as he nodded his head and asked Hanzo for the keys, which he handed over without a word, still in too much shock at how the two females of the group could find such an ugly creature so endearing and… _cute_.

“Come on, boys and girls.” He said with a smile, “Let’s get Emily and this pup home.”


	14. Secrets and girl talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mercy and Molly wait up for the others, Symmetra and Mercy have a talk about feelings and Molly reveals that she knows more than she's let on before.

Angela sat in the common room, one of the books Roadhog had loaned her in one hand and Molly’s head in her lap, the little girl snoozing contently as she occasionally stroked stray hairs off her face and behind her ears, her cowlicks low on her head, but still sticking out enough to make themselves known. She sighed and looked up from the book towards the streamers that hung from the ceiling and the single balloon (Molly offered hers up to decorate the room with) that decorated the room along with a banner that read, ‘Welcome Home, Emily!’ Glitter twinkling down to the floor from the large sheet of paper at a constant rate, yet the thing was still coated with the stuff. A small table had been set up far away from the falling glitter, covered in wrapped up snacks for any and all who were hungry when they returned.

She couldn’t focus on the book or Emily coming here, even though she quite enjoyed the girl’s company well enough. But she was too focused on what happened after they all had left to let her mind enjoy the book or wonder how their soon to be guest was at the moment…

After pouting that she hadn’t been able to wave good bye, Molly asked if they could decorate the common room for Emily’s arrival.

“I told Hog I’d do somethin’ ta cheer ‘er up!” she said firmly, “If I make it really pretty, maybe it’ll make ‘er feel better ‘bout all tha’ scary stuff back in London!”

While her logic was a bit flawed, her heart was definitely in the right place and it certainly made the mood around the base a little lighter as several of the others chipped in, putting up streamers, making simple but tasty snacks, and even deciding to have everyone sign the banner she’d made special for her (that Hana, Zarya and Mei had coated in glitter the moment she was done) so if they arrived late and they had all gone to bed, that at least she’d know they were all happy that she was here.

Angela would have helped decorate or make snacks for the other’s return too, but instead, she’d been in Winston’s lab with him, going over all the files they had on Molly from the M011 drive. Normally Winston would go over such things with only Athena, but her medical expertise was critically needed and she honestly was curious if they had missed something to start with as well.

“I just can’t figure it out.” He murmured, “If you’re going to give your client information on your… ‘_product_’, why would you encrypt it? And why would you leave her so unguarded?” He said, scratching his head.

“What I am wondering is why, despite it being encrypted, are there blacked out sections on here?” She had said, indicating a whole line of text on one page that was blacked out.

“That bothers me too,” Winston agreed. “And that’s not the only place where text is blacked out.” Two more pages popped up beside the first, only these blacked out sections where vertical instead of horizontal and on opposite sides of the pages. “Why would it be blacked out like this?” she asked. The gorilla pushed his glasses up his nose with a finger and sighed as he revealed that, “I have no clue, but I know it’s important. I just wish I could tell you exactly why it is.”

“Well, let’s keep at it, perhaps if we put our heads together, we can figure it out!” she encouraged. Her furry friend gave her a meek smile that quickly sank back into a thoughtful pout at the pages before them.

The two tossed theories around for an hour or so, going through other odd bits and pieces they’d managed and found themselves stuck with no better idea of why data in these files were blacked out when they were already encrypted.

“Winston, Agent Ziegler, Molly is requesting to see you about having you two sign the banner she is making for Emily.” Athena announced.

He sighed, “send her in, at least it’ll give us something else to focus on for a second.”

The door opened and she walked inside, cheerfully dragging a long sheet of paper and leaving a trail of glitter behind her, her balloon bobbing in the air behind her as she walked, “I’ve got th’ bann-“ she stopped mid sentence, dropping the banner and staring at the pages as if suddenly in a trance.

“Molly?” Winston asked. Molly didn’t say anything for a moment, too busy staring at the three pages floating in the air.

“Molly?” Angela called softly as she walked over and gently touched her arm, “Molly…”

“Ya got them all mixed up.” She finally said, not looking away from the pages as she walked closer to them, slowly pulling away from her hand in the process.

“Mixed up?” the silver backed scientist repeated.

“Yeah.” She said, then raised her arms to Winston, “Lift me up, I’ll show ya.”

“Please.” Angela reminded her.

“Please.” She repeated. Winston carefully picked her up, letting out a soft ‘umph’ when her balloon hit him in the face, and held her out towards the floating pages. She moved the two pages on the end and put them on either side of the first page with the line of text blacked out, making the black lines on the pages resemble a big black ‘H’.

She and Winston stared at it, surprised, then confused. Okkkaaayyyy… How was this any better than it was a minute ago? It went from random lines to a capital H.

How did this change things in any way, shape or form?

“Molly, what…?” Winston began.

“Shh… I haven’ unlocked it yet.” She informed them before carefully tracing her finger over the lines of the letter and watched as it dissolved into bits of data and then several other screens filled to the brim with data exploded around them, streaming upwards towards the ceiling and not stopping.

Both man and ape’s jaws dropped as the information continued to roll in, seemingly endless.

How?

Why?

And what the actual fuck?

“There ya go!” She said, satisfied, “You can put me down now.”

Winston looked half impressed and half upset that he hadn’t thought to do that and was too emotional to form words as he carefully lowered her back onto the floor, so Angela took it upon herself, “Molly, how did you know that would work?”

“Cause we’re supposed ta show th’ people who pick us up how ta do it.” She said plainly, “We carried those sticks ‘round with us everywhere ta make sure we could lock ‘um ‘n unlock ‘um. Every toime we ate, every toime we dumped our waste buckets in th’ scanny boxes, every toime got poked ‘n prodded, we give them th’ stick, th’ little screens pop up, we make th’ H, we trace it, we unlock it, they put in information, we lock it again, they hand it back ‘n then you can leave ta do whatever else they told ya ta do ‘fore lockin’ ya in yer safe again fer th’ day. Would’ve shown ya sooner if ya asked.” Angela considered that fact. She was right, they had never talked to her about it. They never asked her if she knew anything about the information on the stick, they all had assumed that, due to her lack of reading or speaking skills, she knew nothing about the data on her own stick.

“You said they put in information nearly everytime you did something out of your safe?” Winston asked, finally snapping out of it.

She shrugged, “I guess so. We weren’ allowed ta leave where we was until they were done ‘n sometimes they’d be poking at those screens for a long toime ‘n I’d jus’ stand there, waitin’ fer them ta finish up so I could move on.” She pouted, “It was always annoyin’ when ya had ta wait fer them ‘fore you could eat…”

“Understandable.” Winston agreed, “When I was on the Horizon Lunar Colony, we all were always irritated whenever we’d receive our portions later than we were supposed to.”

“We?” she asked.

“Yes, I was a sort of test subject on a special base on the moon...” He explained.

“YOU’VE BEEN TO THE MOON?!” She blurted, understandably amazed. She had only learned that the large rock orbiting their planet existed after coming here (the night they’d picked her up had been a new moon, so she hadn’t seen it), so to hear that some one there had been there before was probably mind blowing to her.

“I was born there.” He informed her, obviously a little uncomfortable about the subject manner. He hardly ever talked about what he’d been through back then, but Angela made a mental note to ask Molly to ask him more about it when they were alone. As they were both living test subjects, both only known by their given numbers until leaving those labs, it would probably be easier for him to talk about it with Molly than anyone else here. And since Winston had left there as a young gorilla, he could understand more of what she was going through than nearly anyone else here could and could help her adjust to things now that she was free. That, and, with Lena in a relationship, she could see Winston slowly becoming more withdrawn, he’d spend more and more time locked away in his lab, and she was starting to get worried. Having someone to talk to who understood your past and happy to talk about anything, really, would be good for him.

“Wow…” she murmured, then began bouncing on her toes, “What was it loike? What was it loike?!” she asked eagerly, “Could ya see anything from up there?”

He smiled fondly, “Yes. Yes I could, would you like to see?” She nodded eagerly and he pushed a few buttons on his keyboard, an image of Earth from space popping up from a nearby projector. Molly looked at it in awe, “What is it?” she asked softly, as if raising her voice would scare it away.

“It’s Earth.” He informed her.

“It’s so pretty…” she whispered, marveling at the sight. The scientist chuckled and gently ruffled her hair as he said, “Consider it a thank you for helping us unlock your files.”

“…” she paused, then pouted, a bit upset with herself, “No… tha’s not fair ta ya. I would’ve helped ya with tha’ anyways, it was th’ one thing I was supposed ta do when found ‘n I should’ve shown you guys before… ‘M sorry…”

“Molly.” Angela finally spoke, making them both jump, probably forgetting momentarily that she was still here, “We never asked you about this, after you gave it to us, we never gave you a chance to show us this. We assumed that, since you couldn’t read, write or talk, you wouldn’t know anything about this.”

Molly seemed to ponder that, still a bit upset with herself. She doubted she would smile again until she could get her mind off of this… but how… hmm…

She remembered earlier how she had been smiling when she had shown how good she was at stealing, and while she knew this kind of behavior certainly shouldn’t be encouraged, well, at the same time, it wouldn’t hurt to do it, just this once…

“Molly.” She called, “Winston and I will be here a while, perhaps you could gather some snacks for us from the kitchen…” she paused purposefully, feigning a frown, “Oh, wait, the others probably wouldn’t want us to eat too late at night. If only there was some way to get them without anyone knowing…” She watched as an impish smile crept up the child’s cheeks, the cowlicks lowering on her head, her face brimming with glee and mischief, “I think I can handle tha’.” She purred.

“Can you also get me another jar of peanut butter?” Winston asked as he carefully put her back down, “The one I have here is empty.” She gave him a nod and a salute, “Leave it ta me!” she said, brimming with confidence as she began running out of the room, stopping when she saw her banner on the floor. She carefully picked it up and held it up to them, “Can you two sign this first?”

“Of course.” The glasses wearing gorilla agreed.

“Certainly.” Angela said with a nod. They both signed the banner and Molly thanked them cheerfully and assured them that she’d be back soon with snacks before running off, her balloon staggering behind her and the banner leaving a trail of glitter in her wake.

What they’d managed to gather from this data was far more helpful than the first time they’d tried to go through it.

According to the data, Molly was one of one hundred children born in a single year that they had created with, ehem, ‘donated’ eggs and genetically altered sperm (thanks to a Dr. O’ Deorain… why did that name sound so familiar to her?) from the same deceased employee to create children with psychic abilities. Molly was the first one born with Junker DNA and had shown the most promise in telepathy and telekinesis. When it came to her telepathy, she was not the best at it compared to a few other children, who had managed to not only read minds but who could transfer their own thoughts into the heads of others, (explaining why they never bothered to teach Molly how to speak, they probably felt she should be getting to a level where she could do that soon) but she had quite a knack for it, it always seeming to kick in quickest when sensing something dangerous was about to happen and managed to keep herself out of harms way more often than other subjects put through the same situations. Her telekinesis, on the other hand, was quite powerful, she was one of the best with it (Top 3, apparently) and she made it more effective by using it in ways the others never thought to use it before. These two factors made her a star subject in the study… until another subject died in front of her after failing a test and she completely lost control while crying and trying to see if she could help the fallen one, this resulted in the deaths of five scientists and the injury of four more when trying to remove her and her having a bad nose bleed, informing them that she had exceeded her limits and would need time to recooperate and cool down.

After this incident, she began getting severe migranes while using her powers that rendered her powerless and ill for days on end. After several scans, surgeries and studies, they guessed that her emotions affected her powers and triggered her headaches. So they had decided to fix that by removing the part of her brain where her emotions came from. When they had gone into try to remove the emotion sector of the brain, they realized that they could render her useless to them by doing so. So they instead closed her head back up and began looking into ways to simply lessen the pain. They eventually settled on acupuncture to lessen the pain, shaving the spots for them to find them more easily.

Her headaches were not as bad then, however, she seemed to be subconsciously limiting herself to less than a third of of the power she had before the incident. After a quick meeting, the team decided to do one more test on Molly:

They would sell her on the black market to very dangerous people and not tell them at the weapon they were buying was a person. Once the ones who bought her opened up her safe, they would see if she would be able to defend herself or not. If not, she was dead and they could write her off as a failed subject, but if she survived and was able to break from her self inflicted funk, she would be brought back for further study.

Angela was beyond furious now. They had killed another child in front of her and when she lost control, instead of finding ways to comfort her or help her mourn, their first thoughts were, ‘Hey, her powers are linked to her emotions and she’s upset by what happened so she’s not doing as well… But that doesn’t really work for us, so let’s cut out the part of her brain that helps her feel and we can go back to risking children’s lives like we have been!’

The only reason Molly was still able to have emotions was the fact that they realized that, since her powers were connected to her emotions, without her emotions she’d probably have no powers and that would ruin the whole reason they got her. And then, _again_, instead of trying to help her through a traumatizing event like that, they decided to simply dull the pain by poking her more, probably making it worse. Then they were still mad that she was having a hard time doing what they wanted, so they just sold her to Talon to see if she would survive the encounter or not. Deciding that, if she lived, that they’d steal her back to keep making her life miserable and that if she died, they wouldn’t care.

And after learning all that, the good doctor was ready to give _them_ a final experiment, which she told Winston after he called Jack and informed him that they had far more data on both the kidnapper and Molly due to Molly helping them ‘unlock’ the decryption. It was actually quite simple: place the ones who had done so much to Molly in the same room as the members of Overwatch and see how long they could last undergoing the same torture they probably put these kids through…

But upon telling Winston that, he stared at her, frightened, “Angela, maybe you should see what’s keeping Molly, she’s been gone for a while and she might have gotten caught…”

“Winston, Agent Ziegler, Molly has returned ‘with th’ goods’.” Athena reported promptly.

“Ah, I see, let her in.” Winston replied. The door opening to reveal a very cheerful child in her brand new pajamas (that she had apparently been so excited to wear them that she hadn’t even taken the tags or size stickers off, let alone washed them first) with armfuls of snacks and not one, but _three _jars of creamy peanut butter, “Sorry it took so long.” She said as she walked over to them, “We had more than one koind of peanut butter ‘n I couldn’ ‘member if ya loiked th’ creamy koind or th’ crunchy koind.”

“We have the crunchy kind?” Winston asked as she handed him the jars and the snacks.

“Yeah, apparently Symmetra used it in a recipe last week. After I heard tha’ I grabbed a few jars of th’ creamy.”

“Heard that or read her mind?” She asked her. Molly stiffened, while she had learned about her powers earlier today (which honestly felt so long ago now…) Angela was the only one, to the child’s knowledge, outside of herself, who knew what she could do, so she was obviously concerned that she had said that in front of Winston, only for her to assure her that, “We read some of the files, we know what you can do.”

“You do?” she asked, obviously nervous and uncomfortable.

“Yes.” Winston replied as he placed the snacks down and opened one of the jars or peanut butter, tossing the red cap to the side into a pile of similar ones as he scrolled through some graphs and charts on a screen in front of him, “They may not have known how to help you, but we can. All this data can help us build on a way to help you.”

“How?” she asked, obviously curious, which was a good sign. If she had began telling them that it was impossible than it would mean that she’d lost all hope in herself, her being curious meant that she was open to trying to learn how to gain some sort of control over these abilities she’d never asked for. “They said they tried everythin’…” she explained, her voice drifting off at the end, as if trying to remember exactly what they had done to try to fix her after all they had done to her for all her life.

“Molly, as a scientist myself, I assure you, there were plenty of ways they didn’t try that we will.” Winston promised her as he helped himself to one of the bags of banana chips she had gotten for him and opened it, “Starting with something I discussed with Junkrat earlier today, I’m going to see who is available starting the day after tomorrow to teach you self defense, we all want you to be able fight back in some way if something like today happens again. It should also give you some confidence to use other methods than your powers to protect yourself. I know for a fact that it would ease all of our minds to know that, Darwin forbid something happens to us, that you can defend yourself to some extent, especially Roadhog’s.” This fact made a small smile curl up her face, taking that as a good sign, he continued, “I also have seen that Zenyatta has requested Athena to inform you when and where he and Genji plan to meditate from now on, I think that would be another good way to help you find a way to keep yourself calm and sort things out without worrying about your abilities acting up.”

“Yeah, tha’s why I asked ‘im ‘bout it earlier. Figured it couldn’t hurt.” She shrugged.

“Well done.” He agreed before telling her that, “Another thing we would like you to do is simply talking to us.”

“But I already do tha’.” She pointed out.

“We know.” Angela said, “But you’ve also been holding things back from us, like your powers, your nosebleeds, your headaches…” Molly winced before looking away guiltily as she went on to say that, “You are not to hold those back anymore, you tell us what you think, how you feel, what you like and what you don’t like. It doesn’t matter to who or about what, but talking to us might help you recover from the things that happened there and help us all get to know you better.”

“’N…’n ya really think all tha’ will work?” she asked hesitantly.

“Yes, but not right away. You went through some pretty traumatic things, Molly. It will take time to heal from that, and there are chances that these things will pop up again from time to time, but we are here for you and we want to help you. Not because of anything on this stick.” Angela said, pointing to the one in Winston’s computer, “That was for M011, you’re Molly of Overwatch now. You are a part of this family and we will always be here for you.”

“… Family?” she repeated, looking up at them hopefully, an emotional tremor in her voice.

“Always.” She guaranteed as she gently pulled the child in her arms in a hug, “Now, let’s get you to bed, it’s way past your bed time.” She said when they parted.

Molly paused, thinking, then looked up at her, determined, “I don’ wanna. I want ta wait fer everyone ta get home first.”

The good doctor looked at her face and smiled, it seemed as though Molly was already taking steps to get better… or just really didn’t’ want to go to bed yet and was using this as an excuse, but she was talking more and that was good. “You really want to?” she inquired. Molly nodded, “I wanna meet Emily ‘n I wanna see if everyone’s okay ‘n I wanna know what Rat got me ‘n I wanna see their faces when they see th’ common room ‘n…”

“Alright, alright.” She laughed, “If I let you _try_ to wait up for them, then you need to brush your teeth again and bring a book to read in the common room, deal?”

Molly nodded eagerly, “Deal!” She and Winston watched as she dashed out into the hall to brush her teeth and get a book.

“… we’re all going to end up spoiling her rotten, aren’t we?” Winston asked.

“I would not say that,” she replied, “It’s more like we’re making up for all the love those scientists never gave her.”

“So we are going to spoil her rotten.” He confirmed, making her chuckle, “I’d say it’s fair since she spoiled you with _three_ jars of peanut butter and _five _bags of banana chips.” She teased.

“Which I will need while I go over all this with Athena.” He defended, dipping a chip into the pilfered peanut butter and tossing it into his mouth, only for her to give him a flat look and for Athena to say that, “Winston, it is actually quite late, perhaps you should get some rest and I will go over the files and give you a run through after breakfast.” He looked at the icon on the screen, a bit embarrassed that he was being treated like the seven year old that had just left his lab, but relented when the AI reminded him that, “You didn’t sleep much yesterday or the night before, your body and mind need rest, right Doctor Zielger?”

“That is true.” She mused, not bothering to hide her smug smile. He frowned at them both, but sighed, “Alright.” He stretched a bit and began walking towards his room, “I could use the rest anyway.” He admitted as he left, Angela not to far behind him. The two separating when she headed to the women’s side of the dorms, Molly running up to her from the men’s side, most likely gathering a book to read from Roadhog’s room, wishing Winston sweet dreams as she passed him and waited in the corridor between the boys and girls side for her.

She gathered her book and the two of them got comfy on the couch to read their books, Molly finally drifting off to sleep at about eleven pm, despite her best efforts.

It was now nearly one in the morning and she was tempted to carry the child to bed before collapsing into her own, but instead spotted Satya entering the room with a steaming mug of something, probably decaf tea. She seemed surprised to see the two of them there so late at night.

“Molly wanted to wait here for them until they got back.” She whispered. The Indian woman’s eyes widened a bit in understanding before tip toeing her way over, being careful to not wake Molly or get any falling glitter into her mug as she made her way to the couch.

“… It’s good that she can rest so peacefully.” Satya commented. Angela nodded before watching the tired woman slip beside her Molly free side, being careful not to disturb the snoozing girl on her friend’s lap as she sat down, cradling her mug as her friend asked, “Is something the matter? It’s quite late.”

“… I have had trouble sleeping the past few days,” She admitted, “I cannot clear my head to rest and I cannot stop thinking about…” she stopped herself, looking a bit flustered.

“Is this about Junkrat?” Angela asked knowingly, her serene mask nearly cracking from the desire to giggle when she saw her friend’s shoulders droop, most likely too exhausted to bother arguing the accusation like she had earlier in the day as she nodded.

“Is this about the kiss that Hana, Zarya, Ana and Molly saw?”

The woman stiffened, an embarrassed pout on her face before she sighed and explained that, “Them bringing it up didn’t exactly help make it any easier for me not to think about it…”

Angela closed the book, placing it on the nearby table before motioning for her to talk, which her friend seemed to silently debate for a moment before leaning back into the couch, “I don’t know where I should even start.” She admitted, “The whole reason I came in here was to drink something warm and watch some televison to get my mind off of him, but I doubt that would’ve helped, now that I think about it…”

“Well, what about him is keeping you up now?” she asked.

“… Seeing him _clean_. I used to wish that he would take showers more often, but after the first time I saw him clean, I can’t decide if I’d rather him be filthy and deal with the mess he leaves behind just by just touching things or if I’d rather him be clean and deal with me losing all focus on my work to admire his freckles and the lean muscle on his back and shoulders and arms and wonder how he made his arm and leg and why on Earth he refuses to upgrade and…” Molly moaned a bit in her sleep, making both women go silent before she quietly summed it up as, “I can’t stop. I worry about him more than I used to, I care for him more than I probably should and while part of me wishes I could have a chance to know what it’d be like to be with him, the other part of me knows that Vishkar would never approve and drag me back to India and make sure I’d never see any of you again and…”

“Wait. Are you saying that Vishkar tells you who you can date?” Angela asked both bewildered and furious on her friend’s behalf, “And would _punish_ you for liking someone they don’t?” Satya looked down at her mug in her lap. “Satya, they can’t tell you who you can and cannot like!” Angela blurted, frustrated that this seemed to be so hard for her to see that.

“You don’t know what they’d do if they found out I was interested in a possible romantic relationship with a Junker!” She said softly, “They’d make me go through reconditioning, I’d lose everything I’d worked so hard for! They could take my arm, my hard light...” She looked at Angela, frightened and pitiful, “Hard light is all I know! It’s all I’m good for! I only know how to build with it, it was all I taught and it’s what’s helped make me the best! If they take what makes me Symmetra, then who am I?”

“Satya Vaswani.” She replied easily, “My friend.” She reminded her as she gently placed her hand on her right arm.

“But I couldn’t work for Overwatch anymore!” She said, tears starting to fall down her face, “Without my hard light, I can’t go into battle, and they won’t just let me keep using hard light if I just decide to quit, they’ll make sure to get my arm and weapon back through legal methods or otherwise…”

“Satya.” Angela said firmly, “Do you really think any of us would abandon you like that? We’d find a way to keep you building with hard light, we do have some very smart engineers who could probably build you a new arm… and we also have some very skilled thieves if we must sink to that level. And it’s not as if hard light is the only reason we love having you here, you are skilled in many other things that could help us, your knowledge of multiple languages and negotiation and business would be a dream while dealing with businesses, politicians and bureaucrats from all over the world. And even if you didn’t have _that, _you are _family_. We will always have your back, alright?” Satya gently held out her hands and Angela pulled her into a hug and rubbed her back as Satya sniffled and sobbed into her shoulder, “We won’t let them take your arm. We won’t let them take you either.”

“But they’d pull funding!” she cried, “Without that, we’re in no position to keep them at bay!”

“Only while the PETRAS act is in effect.” She reminded her, “And we’re so close to repelling that!” she gave her hands a squeeze, “We just need to keep doing our best and working together!”

“So what do I do about Junkrat until then?” Satya sniffled.

“Flirt. Back.” Molly murmured grumpily from her spot, making them both jump a bit, much to Molly’s dismay as her head bounced with them, her eyes were still closed, she had an irritated pout on her face as she managed to explain that, “He’ll short circuit fer a bit, should give ya a little more toime ta think, plus it’s not like ya haven’ wanted ta make ‘im squirm a bit.”

The two women looked at her, shocked, “How long have you been awake?” Angela asked her.

“Woke up at th’ freckles part. Kinda went in ‘n out fer a bit ‘n finally woke up ’round th’ part where ya said tha’ they’d drag ya back ta India ‘cause they’re a bunch of wankers.” She groaned, “also, if yer so worried ‘bout them foindin’ out, we can jus’ _not _tell ‘um ‘bout you two datin’. How are they gonna know if we don’ tell ‘um? I mean, they still dunno Lúcio works ‘ere ‘n any drongo with Google can figure tha’ out.” She then lifted her hand up and waved it lazily in the air, “So stop worryin’ ‘bout it…” she suggested with a yawn before letting her hand flop back down onto the couch and quickly falling back asleep.

The two women sat there for a moment, letting the child’s Ana-like wisdom sink in before Satya asked, “How…”

“We’ll explain in the morning.” Angela promised with a sigh.

The two then sat there quietly for a bit, Satya sipping from her mug while Angela picked her book back up and opened it back up to where she left off but not really reading it. Niether of them really knowing what to say now or knowing if it was alright to leave just yet.

Luckily they were saved when Lena happily burst through the door with her girlfriend in tow. The two had been giggling on the way in, but the giggles were sucked into gasps as they looked at the room. After Lena quietly translated Molly's handwriting, Emily covered her mouth with her hands and her eyes watered at the banner welcoming her _home_. Lena looked touched as she carefully approached it, wary of the falling glitter, and squinted up at the names, gently tracing them with her fingers, getting them covered in the stuff.

“Molly made the banner.” She informed them, “She had us all sign it just in case you all came in while we were all sleeping.”

“Where is Molly?” Lena asked. Satya pointed down to the child resting on Angela’s lap as the Swiss woman explained that, “She _did_ try her best to wait up for you all, but she only made it to eleven o’clock before falling asleep.”

Lena smiled and leaned over the couch to gently ruffle her hair, “Probably for the best, poor thing had a long day today.”

“I think we all have.” Satya pointed out, taking another sip before asking, “Where are the others? I would have thought they would be with you two.”

Lena smiled like the cat who ate the canary, Emily giggling as her girlfriend sang, “_You missed him_!”

“I merely hope that our comrades are uninjured, Widowmaker and Reaper are quite the opponents.” She reminded them.

“Meh, after tonight, I wondah. Genji and Rat managed to push Widowmaker off a roof ‘n into a trash can pretty easily ‘n broke her gun.” Lena dismissed, “’N while Reaper gave Lúcio ‘n Hog a bit of trouble, but thanks to Rat ‘n Molly’s smoke bombs, we got out of all of that without a single scratch…”

“Except for the shot to Roadhog’s rear…” Emily reminded her.

“WHAT?” Angela blurted, making Molly scowl with her eyes still shut, “Loud noises…!” she moaned, obviously irritated at the second interruption to her sleep so far that night.

“That loud noise was due to learning that Roadhog was shot.” Satya informed her.

The child sat up immediately, very much awake now with her eyes wide open, “Hog was WHAT?!”


	15. Names

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Names are demanded, given and shared.

Rat was overjoyed when they finally landed back home, the ride had been far more pleasant since it hadn’t been rushed, but it still had some unhappy people on board… okay, one unhappy person on board…

One unhappy Hog on board.

Lúcio’s amp helped a bit with the pain, but since it was a bullet that bounced into his friend’s ass, they had no idea if it was safe to keep using that without having someway to remove the bullet, which they did not have on the ship with them. Or really know how to do at all. So Roadhog had to lie on his massive stomach, which had apparently not been very comfortable for him, and grumbled all the way home. Luckily for him the trip back was only about three hours, which, considering the lengths of their usual trips on the drop ship, was a fairly short one.

Still, Rat asked Lúcio to have some songs to either calm him down or cheer him up on standby while he had Molly’s new pet play fetch with a smoke bomb, which he had been doing for the ten minutes it took Lena to do the safety checks with Emily in the cockpit with her.

“And you’re sure this won’t explode and kill us all?” 76 asked for the fourth time.

“Yes!” he snapped for the fourth time, “It’s a smoke bomb, ‘n one tha’ won’ work unless ya light it. Torb ‘n me was showin’ Molly how ta make ‘um today after she got back from shoppin’. These ones were made specifically _not_ ta blow unless lit. Wanted ta make sure she didn’ blow ‘erself up while learnin’.” He informed him, “So it’s okay ta toss ‘round ‘s long as th’ cowboy can hold off on th’ cigars.”

“He should.” Hanzo said sternly, “it’s not safe to do that in here.”

“I dunno, this is McCree we’re talking about…” Genji countered.

“Um, guys?” Lúcio called, bringing all male eyes on him so he could point to the cowboy in question, holding a lighter and a cigar, “… I’ll just put this away, then.” He said, putting both away before Lena got the ship in the air and the dog curled up by Hog to sleep while the guys started up another card game, the love birds up in the cockpit, chattering away, most likely catching up with the events of the week, everyone but Hanzo, McCree and Hog (due to the new asshole Reaper had given him) swapping seats to pet the dog while he snoozed.

He didn’t know what the uptight archer and the cowboy’s problems were with the dog. Okay, he kinda understood Hanzo’s problem with them, cause Genji already said he was more of a cat person, but that was beside the point. That dog saved their asses from Widowmaker, _and he friggin’ peed on her, for fuck’s sake that was **HILARIOUS**_!!!

How the dog had saved them? Well, while Old 76 and Old McDonald were distracing her with shots and the soldier’s shouting into the comms for Lúcio or Hog to respond, the cyborg went on a head and went to one side of the roof while he’d placed one of his concussion mines on the roof, hopped on it, and leapt to the same rooftop that his current mission partner and the bitchy blue sniper (or was she purple? It was too dark to really tell) were on, the sound from his mine and his laughter caught her attention, making her stop to move her scope towards him, only for Genji to make her jump back with a few shuriken and the two began destroying her defenses on the roof to make it easier for one of the four of them to take her out…

Only for her to make Genji slip by kicking a foot out from under him and making him smack his head really hard against one of the crates she had been using for cover, leading him to sit slumped over in a pained daze for a bit, allowing her to nearly take Rat’s flesh foot with one of her shots, making him fall backwards, landing on the edge of the roof and making him pop up on his hands and knees to keep himself from falling off, getting a nice view of a couple of trash cans in an alleyway behind the pub they were on, the bitch quickly placing the barrel of her gun on the back of his head.

“Any last words?” she had purred. Rat’s mind raced as he tried to think of something, anything that could help him… when he noticed an odd creature sniffing around the garbage cans.

“Is tha’ a dog?” he asked, confused.

“What?” the woman replied, baffled by the question.

“Down there.” He said, pointing it out to her, “_Tha’._” The woman kept the barrel on the back of his head as she squinted down at where he was pointing, “I think so… ‘owever, I’ve never seen a dog like that before…” She admitted, Genji getting up from his place, shaking his head a bit as he quietly walked towards them.

“Thought dogs were supposed ta be man’s best mate, what koinda psycho does tha’ ta their best mate?” he asked aloud as he watched it sniff the ground around the trash cans.

“I don’t know.” She replied coolly, “But…” she lifted the gun from his head and aimed it at the dog, “I think I should put it out of it’s misery…” But before she could take a shot, Genji gave her a sharp shove off the roof top, making her tumble onto the trashcans before she could think to pull out her grappling hook, her rear landing in one of the cans, then falling to the side and rolling towards the dog as he lifted his leg and took a leak... on her.

She was unarmed, her gun teetering on the edge of the roof before Rat picked it up. She snarled at them and the dog before pressing something near her ear. She struggled to get out of the trash can for a few minutes before actually managing to do it and running off. The two metal limbed men high fived at the sight and he tossed her gun into the air for Genji to destroy, the cyborg happily cutting it into a few pieces that they left scattered on the roof. Scowling as he heard about Hog getting shot in the ass, and then got even madder when he heard Lena shout the words he always did when he released his R.I.P tire onto the world, “FIRE IN THE HOLE!” and after scolding her for stealing his line and having her make up for it properly, they then finally heard that the others had gotten away from Reaper, McCree bitching about how they were fine too, thanks for asking.

Rat and Genji had waved it off and tried to share what had just happened only for them to be laughing too hard to properly explain until Morrison told them to meet Hog and Lúcio at the car. Genji found a proper ladder and while the two climbed down it as it dawned on Rat that Widowmakers Gun could have been Molly’s present…

But it was probably for the best that they broke it, the sniper couldn’t be of any use without her gun, and the others would probably scold him for bringing her a gun back as a present, especially after Roadie had gained a bullet in the arse on this mission…

BUT… The bullet would probably make Mercy fuss over him, and help them get closer. Junkrat felt a smile curl up his cheeks as he then remembered that he had figured that Hog would either want a woman, a child, a pet or all three. Mercy and Molly fulfilled two out of the three things his best friend wanted more than anything else in the world, what kind of friend would he be if he didn’t help him get all three?

“Oi, Genji.” He said, surprising the half bot by using his proper name for once, “Pets are good fer teachin’ kids responsibility ‘n all tha’ shite, roight?”

“That’s what I’ve heard.” Genji confirmed, “But we always had cats growing up and they only taught me that cat pee is a horrible fluid that taints anything it touches with a horrible smell for all eternity.”

“Interesting…” Rat giggled, “So, what about _dogs_?” Genji paused, then replied, in a very cheerful voice, “I suppose we will find out when we get that dog, now won’t we?” The two then quickly dashed into the alleyway and found the mangled mutt was still in the spot they’d last seen him, upon leaning down and offering their hands, the dog happily licked them and wagged it’s battered tail.

“Well, it’s friendly.” He discovered, “Don’ have a collah. ‘N I doubt anyone’d leave their pet wanderin’ ‘round th’ streets alone with th’ riots going on even if ‘e did.”

“Agreed.” Genji nodded.

“So what do you think? Be a good present for Molly?” he asked.

“I think you are right, this will be a _very_ good present for Molly.” He confirmed and the two snatched it up and raced over to the car, giggling as they did so as they pictured the expressions on the child’s face when she’d see her new friend.

Rat was jolted out of his flashback when he felt them land, Lena telling them that “We’re home, loves!”

They touched down at the base at about one in the morning, the gang all tired and ready for bed, Rat, Hog and the dog being the last ones still on the ship as he helped the seven foot three man up and helped the dog make it’s way to the opening where the others were waiting for them, mainly to make sure the two creatures with their names ending in ‘og’ were going to be okay coming down.

Rat spotted Orisa and Bastion quietly snoozing (or whatever their version of that was) in a far corner of the hanger, Zenyatta hovering nearby sitting criss cross applesauce and giving a slight bow towards them, but wisely deciding not to get any closer. Which Rat was grateful for, he really didn’t need that thing being any closer to them when they were this tired and grumpy. Especially since Hog was already pissed that he’d have to wake Mercy to pull a bullet out of his ass and probably whip up a worried frenzy from lil Molly once she found out about it (since she never had heard or saw any of them being shot before, and of course Hog would be the first one with a bullet wound). He muttered as much as they made their way over to the others.

Rat picked up her souvenir, “No worries, mate.” He said as he shoved the dog in his face as he hopped down the steps of the ORCA ahead of him, “We still got this guy ta help keep ‘er busy.” He reminded him. Hog grumpily looked at the sleepy pooch in his arms, then at him, then groaned as he carefully decended the stairs after them, grimacing in pain the whole time he did.

“We’ll go look for her!” Lena offered when they both reached the hanger floor, holding Emily’s and her tangled fingers up into the air, “If she’s in ‘er room sleepin’ we could place ‘er new dog in there and watch them cuddle!” She then pulled her girlfriend inside, the two giggling like what Rat assumed school children did (He couldn’t really remember if he had even gone to school or not, so he was no expert about that). Morrison telling them that they should probably go straight to the med bay before Mercy had a fit.

“Come on, Jack,” McCree argued, “at least let Roadhog see his kid’s reaction to her new…” he struggled to find a word he felt actually described the beast in Rat’s arms, “Dog?” Genji offered, as if it were obvious, Lúcio and Rat giving him looks as if to say, ‘For the love of all that is holy, it may not be the prettiest dog in all the land, but if it’s sweet and makes Molly happy, who gives a flying fuck what it looks like?’

“Yeah.” He said, although it was obvious that he was still uncertain if the mangled critter among them could be considered a dog.

“Athena?” Lúcio called up to the ceiling, “Where is Molly?”

“Molly, Agent Ziegler and Agent Symmetra are all in the common room, the others had set up a surprise there for Emily’s arrival.” The AI replied.

“She asleep?” Hog asked.

It was quiet in the hanger for a moment before Athena replied, “She is currently awake, but it seems as though she is drifting back to sleep.”

“Does she know we’re back?” Rat asked.

“No.” The computerized voice simply replied, “She woke up during a conversation Agents Ziegler and Symmetra were having.”

“Good.” 76 said gruffly, “We’ll take Hog and the dog there, Junkrat, Lúcio, you two take Molly and her new friend to her room and the rest of us will help keep Angela from throwing a fit over Roadhog’s ass and waking everyone else up.”

“Oh sure, give us the hard job.” Hanzo sighed.

“How are ya sure Molly won’t throw a fit as well?” McCree teased.

“Because it’s one in the morning and she’s seven. She’ll do it later on when she has more energy.” The old soldier replied.

“She’s almost eight.” Hog corrected, “’er birthday’s comin’ up.”

“Really?” Genji asked. He nodded, “She’ll be eight on th’ eleventh of October.” He informed them.

“That’s quite close.” Hanzo commented, stroking his chin thoughtfully.

“Oh man, forget Mercy, _Hana’s_ gonna throw a fit that we haven’t already started planning a party for her.” Lúcio groaned as he rubbed his eyes, exhausted.

“We’ll deal with all that in the morning.” 76 said firmly, “Now let’s get this over with and get some sleep, we’ll have a debriefing in the morning at 09:00.” Then it was Rat’s turn to groan. As someone whose sleep patterns were ‘work and work and work and fuck around until too tired to do anything anymore and sleep fitfully for a while before waking back up and being grumpy about not getting enough sleep and starting the cycle all over again’, early morning debriefings were the bane of his existence. It was one of the rare downsides of this job, but he dealt with them and paid enough attention to know if it had gone good or bad, if there was anything really important that came out of it, and if someone was going to give him shit about something for a while because old 76 could be a complete asshole at times.

“Actually, Agent Morrison, there has been more information on both the kidnapper and Molly herself that we have obtained since Winston’s phone call earlier, perhaps we should push that meeting back a bit.” Athena informed him, “At least to catch up on all the new things we’ve gained, Winston retired at a reasonable hour this evening and it might take him a bit to see that he has a good understanding of the information.” The retired commander seemed to be a bit pissed that his decision had to be altered, but he nodded in understanding, realizing that it was better to push it back and get everything out there instead of having a few meetings in a row to cover/correct everything, “Alright, I’ll check with him in the morning to see what news you got for us.” He agreed as they made their way to the common room. Rat becoming more and more excited as he did so.

Was this how it felt to give someone you cared about a present? A growing excitement that made you feel giddy and eager to see how much they liked it?

Huh. Felt pretty good. He should give presents more often. Maybe next time he’d give Symmetra a present... Oh wait, Hog said that Molly’s birthday was coming up, so maybe he’d get Sym a present _after_ getting Molly one for her birthday, heck, maybe he’d ask Sym to help him pick out a nice present for Molly, then ask Molly to help him pick out a nice present for Sym… yeah, that actually sounded really good. After making that decision, he cheerfully made his way to the common room, giggling a bit on the way there.

But when they finally reached the door, they could hear Molly cry out, “Hog was WHAT?!”

“Sounds loike yer busted, mate.” He teased. Hog scowling at him through his mask and flipping him off for all to see, “Oi,” he said, covering the dog’s eyes, “Not in front of th’ mutt, mate.”

“I think I might know a way to make it less worse.” Genji said eagerly as he went inside, Lúcio quickly dashing in behind him, worried that the cyborg might just make it worse anyway as Roadie hung back farther down the hall, Morrison, Hanzo, McCree stood near the door with him and the dog so they could listen in.

“We’re home!” Genji cried cheerfully.

“Where’s Hog?” Molly demanded, her voice tired, but firm.

“He’s close by.” He said lightly, “And he’s fine, he’s not dying or anything…”

“I believe it is my job to acertain that.” Mercy replied sternly.

“Ladies, ladies, I understand that you two are worried, so Lúcio and I are here to give you good news and bad news. Which would you like first?”

“Hog.” Molly replied sharply, the sound of something shattering and fluid splashing to the floor making the others in the room yelp before she clarified that she wanted to see him, “_Now_.”

“I’d listen to her if I were you, considering everything we found in her files today.” Mercy purred darkly.

“… Okay, okay, give me a moment, please.” Genji replied smoothly before opening the door back up, the two men looking a bit shaken as they leaned against the door frame, “I tried, someone else tell them!” Genji said quickly, fear bright in Lúcio’s eyes as he nodded in agreement.

“I’ll give it go.” Junkrat offered before shoving the dog in Hog’s arms and walking into the room to see Mercy and Molly glaring at him with such concern and rage and expressions that practically screamed, “YOU ARE IN SO MUCH TROUBLE, YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW, BITCH!’ That he nearly retreated back into the hallway like Genji and Lúcio did. But, instead he bent down towards Molly said, “Hog’s jus’ outside, we was gonna head ta th’ med bay first, but he wanted ta give ya yer present first, tha’ alroight?”

The frightening mood of the room quickly melted enough to make it easier to breathe in there as Lena and Emily began laying on thick about how much they thought Molly would like it, Symmetra piping in that the faster that Molly went to get her present from Roadhog, the faster they could get him to treatment. “Yeah,” he confirmed, “Roadie can be stubborn as all hell when he wants ta be.”

After a few moments, Molly looked up at Mercy, as if silently asking if she could stop being mad now and go out to see if he was really okay and to see what they got her. Mercy sighed and nodded, making Molly popping up from her spot on the couch, her concern practically written all over her face as she dashed out of the room as fast as her little tired body could, the older females not far behind her as he led her back into the hall and the others parted out of their way for them to reach Hog.

The little girl rushed over to him, grabbing at the end of his pant leg, “You okay, Mako?” she asked, tired, but very, very worried, her cowlicks drooped and her eyes wide with concern.

“’M foine.” He insisted as she hugged his leg tightly, his free hand gently sliding through her hair and ruffling it, making her smile a bit. Junkrat smiled, he could easily see that the big guy was really happy that she cared so much and how happy he was just hearing her call him by his real name. He still felt bad for worrying her, but he was still pretty happy as he explained that, “Bullet bounced off brick ‘n into me bum, no biggie.” Molly stiffed and snorted at the word ‘bum’ and seemed to struggle between wanting to be concerned for her Papa Hog and wanting to laugh at the silly word.

“Anyways, Rat ‘n Genji found yer souvenir while we were out.” He said, lowering the dog down towards her so she could see him properly, her violet eyes widening in awe at the drowsy pup in his hand, “It’s a boy, by th’ way.”

“This is _my_ dog?” she asked softly as she carefully held out her hand to him to sniff.

“You know what a dog is?” Symmetra asked, surprised, since, while Molly wasn’t _as _clueless about the world around her as she had been when she first arrived here, she still was quite new to many things, animals especially. (Rat made a mental note to add ‘the Zoo’ to Hana and Lúcio’s list)

“Yeah, they’re in th’ books Hog ‘n Rat read me all th’ toime!” she said excitedly before looking up at her Papa Hog and asking “Is he really fer me?”

“Yup.” Hog confirmed as the dog happily licked her hand, making her chuckle, “He’s so _ugly_!” she cried, absolutely delighted as she gave the canine a hug, “**I love him**!” she squealed before getting a dog spit facial, giggling as she began scratching behind his ears. Hog let out a sigh of relief as he carefully put the mutt down on the floor as Lúcio and Genji, now recovered, began looking at McCree and Hanzo with looks that all but screamed, ‘We told you she’d love him!’

“What are ya gonna name him?” Lena asked. “I get ta name ‘um too?” Molly asked, completely overwhelmed with excitement, glee and dog slobber.

“He’s your dog.” Emily answered, “You get to name him.”

Molly pulled her head away from the dog, to cease the doggie kisses for a moment, continuing to scratch her new furry friend’s ears, thoughtful, before looking at the mutt with a determinded expression, “I’ll call you… Bob.” She said, obviously pleased with her decision.

“_Bob_.” Hanzo repeated in disbelief, “You named your dog _Bob_.”

“That’s a wonderful name.” Symmetra commented, cutting the older ninja bro off before he said something that would make the little girl upset, despite her obvious displeasure by the dog’s appearance as well, but at least she was being supportive.

“Bloody Oath, with ya on tha’ one!” Rat laughed he bent down and lifted up one of the dog’s paws, “Pleasha ta meet ya, Bob!” he said cheerfully as he shook it.

Molly laughed and gave Rat and Bob a hug, “Thank you, Jamie.” She said warmily. He felt his cheeks burn with embarrassment over the use of his real name (especially in front of the others, he doubted he’d mind much if Symmetra used his real name, but he didn’t want McCree or Hanzo or, God _forbid_ Morrison calling him that, that would be so weird…), but it didn’t stop him from smiling broadly as he gently ruffled her hair as he lifted her and Bob up to Genji, “Yer Welcome, but Genji ‘n me both found ‘um, wouldn’ be roight if I took all th’ credit.” He said. Genji was surprised, but got over it swiftly to receive his hug and thank you as well.

Mercy then clapped her hands, getting everyone’s attention, “Alright, now that Molly and Bob have been introduced, I believe that some people are to go to bed and others are to come with me for treatment.” She said, her tone sweet but with an undertone similar to the one Molly used before when demanding for “Hog. Now.”

“Affirmative.” 76 agreed, patting Molly and Bob on the head, “You two sleep well now.” He said, “That’s an order.” Molly nodded and gave him a salute before Genji handed her and Bob back to Rat and followed Morrison, Mercy, McCree, Hanzo and Hog towards old Angel Wing’s office while he led the way back towards their rooms, Symmetra, Lúcio, Lena and Emily not far behind him. He took note of the broken mug and what looked to be tea spilled out over the floor and two of Hog’s books (one those ‘steamy’ romance novels he’d been passing around and the other a children’s book) on the coffee table as they left the common room, Lúcio finally splitting from the group to head to the guys’ side, wishing them all a good night before heading down the hall towards his room.

Lena’s room was close to the hall, so she and Emily headed in there, wishing them a good night as well before going inside. Leaving Rat, Symmetra, Molly and Bob the dog alone as they continued down the hall.

“What on Earth is that smell?” Symmetra asked.

“Hm?” he replied as he looked over to see her nose wrinkled with displeasure and silently hoping that it wasn’t him, “What smell?” he asked for clarification.

“The smell of garbage!” she blurted, as if it were obvious as she covered her mouth and nose.

“Oh, ‘s prob’ly Bob. Did pick him up near a couple of bins…” He recalled.

“And you didn’t _wash_ him before bringing him home?” she cried, horrified.

“Weren’t exactly in a spot where we could do tha’, love.” He reminded her, her cheeks going pink at the word ‘love’, “Especially with Reaper still ‘round. Mean, would ya rather me ‘n Genji be pock marked with bullets too?” he asked.

“No.” She replied quickly, much to his glee.

“Then we can worry ‘bout washin’ ‘im tomorrow maybe even take ‘im inta town ta get groomed, in th’ mean toime, think Mercy kept some spare blankets in Molly’s closet, we can bundle some up on th’ floor fer ‘im ta sleep on ‘til he’s all fresh ‘n clean.” He suggested.

“So he can’ sleep in my bed with me tonoight?” Molly asked, disappointed.

“Not tonoight, Molls, sorry.” He apologized, “Tomorrow for sure, but not tonoight.”

“… okay…” she relented softly as she rubbed her eyes.

“Come on, let’s get you two off ta bed.” He insisted as he reached her room and plopped them both on the floor, the two yawning in unison as he opened up the closet and pulled a few spare blankets out and laid them out on the floor.

“Well, Bob, whaddya think?” he asked the dog. He didn’t make a sound in reply, he simply hobbled over and collapsed onto the blankets, closing his eyes quickly as he nuzzled into the soft fabric beneath him and fell straight to sleep.

“Good enough fer me.” he said with a shrug before addressing to tucking Molly in for the night and telling her to get some sleep, “’Cause you ‘n me are gonna go check in on Hog bright ‘n early, alroight?”

“Okay…” she murmured, “Noight Jamie.” He smiled back at her and ruffled her hair, “Noight Molls.” He replied before turning out the light and closing the door.

He then turned to head over to the infirmary to let Hog know Molly was tucked in for the night before turning in himself, he nearly bumped into Symmetra, who was much closer to the door than she had been when he had entered the room.

“Oh, sorry. Didn’ see ya there.” He said sheepishly.

“It’s quite alright, I… I was merely lost in thought for a moment…” she replied, her cheeks pink.

“’Bout what?” he asked.

“Something Molly said earlier.” she answered, waving her hand as if she was trying to fan her own words away as she quickly added, “It’s nothing really, just girl talk.” He remembered the broken mug of tea in the common room, the steam still coming from the leftover brown fluid on the table. Molly and Mercy’d had books and while Molly had been wearing what he could assume were her new pajamas, Mercy was still wearing the clothes she had on when they left. Symmetra had been and still was wrapped up in her bathrobe, unable to make eye contact. Whatever ‘girl talk’ they might have had occurred not too long ago, if he recalled Athena’s words correctly, and had woken Molly up at some point, and since Molly was on board helping him woo Sym here, he’d get the juicy details about what actually happened later.

“Tha’ roight?” He chuckled. “Of course.” She replied, “I simply had some things on my mind that I wanted to ask Angela about.”

“At one in th’ mornin’.” He asked, a knowing smile on his face as she frowned a bit, realizing her story was a bit off before simply saying, “Okay, I actually went in there to think by myself for a bit and found them there, but it really was just to get my mind off of some things.”

“Ya know what’s been on me mind?” he asked her, his tone teasing. She shivered a bit and shook her head. He leaned in close to her ear, his tone soft as he said, “I’ve been wondering how yer mug broke.”

He pulled away to see that her expression was half upset and half surprised, his question obviously not been what she had been expecting, “Oh.” She said, regaining her composure, “It simply broke while Molly demanded to see Roadhog.” She answered simply.

“So it jus’ shattered fer no reason.” He stated, uncertain if his own words were true.

“Yes, it was quite odd, but I cannot think of any other reason that something like that would happen.” She replied.

“Oh, come on,” he urged, “After Mercy mentionin’ Molly’s files, ya don’ think…”

“She never touched the mug!” she insisted.

“But Old Angel Wings wouldn’ of said tha’ without there bein’ a reason!” He pointed out, “’N tha’ window broke today without being touched neither! Both times, you, Merc ‘n Molly was there! ‘N I know it wasn’ you or Mercy who did it!”

“She was upset that Roadhog got shot!” she blurted, “How would that make the mug explode?”

“I dunno! What did Mercy mean about ‘er file?” He exclaimed back, “Ya said you two were havin’ girl talk, did she say anythin’ ‘bout Molly’s files?”

“No…” she paused, thoughtful, “But she mentioned that she would explain something tomorrow…”

“During the briefing?” he figured, she nodded, “Most likely.” She agreed.

“Guess me question will jus’ stay stuck in me mind ‘til then,” he said with a shrug.

“I guess so…” Symmetra confirmed.

The two stood there, awkwardly, in the hallway for a moment, neither one really knowing what to say next before Rat decided to end the silence and said, “Well, noight ‘Metra, see ya at breakfast, yeah?” She nodded, giving him a soft smile as she did so. His heart felt light at the sight of it as he carefully passed her and walked down to the guys’ side.

“Um, Junkrat?” she called out softly.

“Hm?” he turned back, curious.

“Molly called you ‘Jamie’ earlier…” she said, hesitant.

“Yeah. What ‘bout it?” he posed.

“Well, I was wondering if you told her your fake identity and…” she began.

“Nah, Molly don’ know tha’.” He dismissed, “She knows me by Junkrat ‘n by me real name. Tha’s it.”

“Oh…” she said, obviously uncertain of what she should say to that. But Rat had an idea of what he could say to her now, and while a part of him felt uneasy about it, he decided to just go for it. “My real name is Jamison.” He informed her, “Jamison Fawkes. Told ‘er how me Mum used ta call me Jamie fer short. Back when she was alive, anyhow. ‘N when she asked if she could call me tha’ too, I said it was foine…”

She was too quiet, which made him panic a bit on the inside, “I like Junkrat bettah though, fits.” He quickly added, feeling like a dunce. He was very well aware that his real name didn’t really suit him all that well. Too regal. Too clean. Too… nothing like him. He shouldn’t have told her about his real name, he should’ve listened to his gut! He should’ve just gone to see Hog and go to bed! Why did he tell her this?!

Oh yeah, it was because, deep down, he wanted to hear her say his name, even if it didn’t really suit him at all. He wanted to hear how it sounded in her melodic voice, even if it was just once.

“I disagree.” She informed him, giving him a warm smile as she looked him over, “Jamison Fawkes.” She said, tilting her head as his name rolled off her tongue, his face feeling as if it was actually on fire as her smile grew in size, “I like it.” she told him, “It actually suits you better than ‘Junkrat’.”

His throat felt dry, his hand was sweaty and he felt more fidgety than usual, his metal finger tapping at the base of his peg leg like crazy, “Y-yer jus’ sayin’ tha’…” he managed.

“No, I am not.” She assured him, “It’s a lovely name and I really do think it suits you quite well.”

He felt his heart rate spike through his ribs and more heat flow through his system. And while Rat was used to being a living furnace, since his body always seemed to run hotter than others due to spending most of his life in the radiated Outback, he would swear to all her weirdly colored Gods with extra limbs that he’d never felt his face burn like this before, and he’d accidently lit his eyebrows on fire more than once. He rubbed the back of his neck, his adam’s apple bobbing a bit as he squeaked out a, “Well.” He stopped, mortified as she giggled a bit before clearing out his throat and saying, “Well, since ya loike it so much, I guess I don’ moind if ya use it every now ‘n then.”

She beamed at him, “I’d like that, Jamison.” He felt the intense heat on his face spread to the rest of him, his voice lodged somewhere in his throat, not that he could tell you exactly where in there, making him unable to do anything but nod before turning back around to flee to his room to calm down before he checked on Hog.

“Satya.” He stopped as she explained to his back that, “That is _my_ real name. Satya-“

“Vaswani.” He finished for her, finally turning around to see the surprise on her face, “Yeah, I know. Saw it on one of yer e-mails from th’ suit a while back.” He revealed before turning to face the hallway again so he could manage to tell her that, “Think it’s real pretty, fits ya perfectly.” He felt hotter than he ever had during the many times he’d managed to catch himself on fire and it was hotter than it was all those times he’d accidently blow himself up. His instincts were screaming at him to leg it to his room, to give himself some time to cool down… but mainly to hide there for the rest of the night with pink cheeks and what he knew would be a goofier smile than usual plastered across his mug remembering how she said his real name and that she had actually told him her own.

“Thank you.” She said, her tone gentle and… affectionate? He risked a glance back to see her yawn cutely, before giving him another smile, “I think I’ll head to bed now, it’s quite late. Good night, Jamison.”

“Night Satya.” He replied, giving her one back as he watched her slip into her room. He waited a beat after the door closed before booking it to the infirmary, overjoyed with what had just happened and eager to tell his best friend all as he let out a stream of giggles through the hall as he ran.


	16. Bullets 'n Butts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hog resigns himself to his fate

Mercy had kicked the others out of her office after they escorted her and her patient there before insisting that he removed his shorts and lie on his stomach on one of the beds so she could get a good look at the damage. Roadhog considered pulling a Rat for a moment and making a joke about not hearing women say that everyday, but quickly decided not to and simply followed orders. He didn’t know why he’d even considered that, it hardly ever worked for him, why did he think he could get away with it?

He felt pretty embarrassed as he undid his belt and slipped his shorts down until he felt gravity take over and felt them drop to the floor. He didn’t like taking off his mask to show his face, let alone lowering his pants to reveal what hid underneath unless he had to take a shit.

Oh sure, he’d go shirtless, but that’s what all blokes did in Oz, well, the Junker ones anyway, so he wasn’t really all that shy about it. Being shirtless kept them cooler in the heat, made it so it was harder to grab you if you were fighting or trying to run away, and honestly, it wasn’t as if many places carried clothes in his size. He was lucky to find pants that fit him, let alone a shirt.

“On the bed, please.” Mercy reminded him. He felt his cheeks burn at the unintentional innuendo as he did so, hoping that this would be a quick fix and that he could put his pants back on soon.

“Now,” she said, sounding a bit tired as he heard the snap of a rubber glove being put on, he nearly winced at the noise as she asked, “No one removed the bullet?”

“Nah, Lúcio wasn’ sure if he could do it ‘n he said we didn’ have th’ roight equipment ta do it anyways.” He explained as he tried not to wince as he heard another rubber glove being put on.

“I see…” she said, her footsteps soft as she glanced around his massive ass to find where exactly the bullet hit, the blood probably helped her locate it, but he was a big guy, so he had a big ass, which meant her options were either move around to try and find it or back away enough to find it then walk back towards him again. “Well, bullet removal can be a bit tricky if you’ve never done it before.” She acknowledged.

“It can be tricky even if ya have done it before.” He said, quickly regretting it as she gave him a concerned look, leaving him to explain that, “Me ‘n Rat’ve been shot ‘fore, didn’ exactly have you ‘round ta help us, so we did what we had ta.”

“And I will hazard a guess that you two never used antibiotics or sterilized tools.” She wagered.

“We were lucky if we had somethin’ ta cut th’ bullet out with ‘n some booze ta help disinfect a bit.” He admitted, much to her obvious disapproval, “Well, there is going to be no more of that.” She said sternly.

“Wasn’ plannin’ on havin’ Rat carve into me ass ta get th’ bullet out, so I think we’re on th’ same page ‘ere.” He agreed. That seemed to appease her as she seemed to find the wound, “Ah, here we are.” She said. He could feel her hands gently poke around the area, making him feel even more embarrassed as pain pierced through his ass and up his spine, but he kept his mouth shut via biting his lip as she carefully moved her hands to inspect it further.

“It was probably wise that neither Lúcio or Rat tried to remove it.” she said, “This bullet seems to be a bit warped and took a bit of a wobbly path into your body, so it’s not exactly ideal for an amateur surgeon to remove...”

“But you can get it out, roight?” he asked, cutting her off before she went into too much detail, he’d seen and caused plenty of gore in the Outback, so it wasn’t as if he didn’t know what happened when a bullet (or a hunk of scrap) met flesh, he just wanted to know if and how long it would take for her to fix this. He was tired and just wanted to head off to bed.

“Of course!” she said, sounding a bit more cheerful now, “But it will be painful, so I would rather you not be awake during the operation.”

“...” Hog was not pleased with this. He had wanted this to be a simple pull and patch job, but apparently that was not going to happen. And having her operate on his ass with him knocked out for who knows how long without his pants on? Yeah, not the kind of evening he’d been hoping for here… Plus she sounded pretty tired… She _had_ been staying up waiting for them with Molly all night… “Can it wait ‘til morning?” he asked, “Ya seem tired, rather ya not be pushin’ yerself too hard.”

He could hear her footsteps for a moment before she came into his view, her smile soft and thankful, as well as very tired. “That’s very kind of you, but this needs to come out as soon as possible and I know I would have a hard time sleeping knowing that you were lying here in pain.” She said.

“I could handle it.” he brushed it off, yeah, it would suck and it would hurt, but he’d endured far worse and could and would handle it if needed.

“I could not.” She assured him, making his cheeks burn. He couldn’t argue with that, and to be honest, he kinda didn’t want to. He sighed and murmured out a, “Let’s get it done quick then, faster this gets done, faster we both sleep easy.” She nodded as she left his view, “I will give you something to null the pain first, alright?” she explained. He nodded, he appreciated it when she explained everything to him, it had been years since he’d been to a proper doctor and it was nice that she was mindful that neither he or Junkrat were used to it and would tell them what she was doing and why. He felt a prick in his rear for a moment before feeling a numbness overtake his ass and make him feel really funny, not ‘ha ha’ funny, but like, stuffed with cotton like one of his plushies funny. Everything felt so weird right now… “I will now give you some medication to help you fall asleep through an IV.” She announced, “It might hurt a bit when I first administer it.”

He hated using drugs to sleep, but in this situation (and being a bit high on pain meds), he realized that it could not be helped. So he simply gave her a thumbs up in understanding and held out his arm for her to put the IV in, it pinched, but he soon found himself too exhausted to care.

“Noight Mercy.” He found himself saying in his drugged state before drifting off to sleep. He could almost swear she giggled before replying in kind and giving him a gentle pat on the head.


	17. Whole Hog, Dadhog, Shocked Hog

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mercy sees a part of Hog she hasn't before, Roadhog gets a new nick name and the younger ones are off to get dog stuff for Bob.

Mercy got a visit from Junkrat shortly after knocking Hog out, asking if he was alright, upon hearing that she was about to operate, he apologized and left quickly, informing her that he’d check in on him in the morning then. After seeing him off, she removed the bullet and fixed Hog up in about an hour, she’d covered his lower half with a blanket before leaving for her quarters and finally collapsing in her bed at about three in the morning. She woke up eight hours later at eleven am. Now, while she often tried to get up nice and early, especially when she had a patient to check in on, after the day and night she’d had, she decided that it was fine that she slept in today and doubted Roadhog would mind too much, after all, he’d offered to endure the pain just so she could get some rest before operating, he probably would understand why she got up so late today. She got dressed and ready for the day quickly before snagging some leftover treats from the common room as her breakfast and making her way to her office.

She was just about to reach for the door when Junkrat burst through it, holding Molly and Bob the dog with his flesh arm while chuckling and pointing back to him with his metal one while he laughed.

“_RAT_!” Roadhog shouted from inside the room as Junkrat booked it down the hall, still laughing, Molly giggling along with him and Bob the dog looking quite unphased by all this.

“_FAWKES_!” Roadhog bellowed as he reached the door… sans pants.

It would seem as though he forgot that he removed them last night so she could operate on his backside with little trouble. So she now had quite a view of what she could remember overhearing the guys jokingly refer to as his ‘whole hog’.

She felt her face turn crimson with heat at the realization that it was actually quite well named and slowly turned away from his mostly nude form (cause he goes shirtless, remember?), biting her lip to keep back the childish giggles she could feel bubbling up her throat at his nudity.

Luckily he seemed to notice her and her expression and quickly realized that he was basically naked in front of her and quickly retreated back inside with a, “Shite, sorry!” before closing the door behind him. Angela taking this moment to unleash the giggles she had been holding back and wondering what on Earth Junkrat did to make him rush out of the infirmary without his clothes on.

He opened the door for her, wearing pants this time, and rubbed the back of his head, almost sheepishly, “Sorry. Know you prob’ly didn’ wanna see tha’.” He apologized.

“It was more that it wasn’t what I expected when I went to open the door, not that I didn’t want to see it.” she said, then felt her cheeks burn as she watched his body stiffen, fearing that her words could be misconstrued, she quickly added, “I’d rather be sure that your wound is better than not, especially since, as you pointed out last night, it was very late when I operated and I was quite tired.” Roadhog took a moment to recover before his body finally relaxed and he informed her that, “It feels much better than it did, so I figure it went foine.”

“Yes, well I’d like to be certain of that.” She said, motioning for him to return to the bed he rested on last night with slight waves of her hands, his body language bashful as he silently obeyed her unspoken command, “Or I doubt Molly will leave me alone.” She added, making him relax enough to let out a chuckle.

“I told ‘er I’m foine.” He explained, “Rat saw me pants on th’ floor ‘n made an ass of himself.” He said dismissively, but she doubted that was all there was to it. Roadhog was many things, but one of the more apparent ones was ‘used to Junkrat’s antics’, he was very laid back and hard to get angry and while she was fond of the lanky Junker, she had to admit that those qualities probably came in handy while working with him for so long. She’d scolded him more than once for his fooling around or joking, he often stopped what he was doing once asked, but still, she could tell that life here was different than what he was used to in Junkertown and while on the run with just Roadhog as his only companion.

But Junkrat had informed her and Winston that he’d hired his friend a little before they left Junkertown, so Roadhog, the elder who had a better understanding of the world outside the patchwork metal walls of Junkertown (Junkrat had shown her sketches he’d done of it when she asked him what it looked like) and the radiated wilds of the Outback, and probably had to teach Junkrat, who knew very little about the outside world, how others would expect him to behave… And judging by how quickly he had done so in nearly the year they’d been here, she was morbidly curious at how bad he was at it when they first left Junkertown. But she didn’t ask, remembering how defensive Roadhog had been when she had shown disbelief at Junkrat showering and what he had told her of life out there. She instead put on a fresh pair of gloves and watched out of the corner of her eye as he removed his pants again, seeming a bit embarrassed to have to do so after he had just covered himself again, and carefully climbed back onto the bed and laid on his stomach so she could see her handiwork properly.

“So it’s nothing all that unusual for you, yet you still chased after him.” she pointed out instead. He let out a snort of amusment at the first part before huffing out that, “Rat can get under me skin too.” She rolled her eyes, but didn’t argue with him. Clearly he didn’t want to tell her what had been said, which was fine, she could ask Junkrat, Molly or Athena what they had talked about later. So instead she went to work checking the spot she had sewn back up last night, it looked quite well, if she did say so herself. “It seems to be healing well.” She announced, “I do want to give you another dose of nanobiotics before you put your pants back on, though.”

He let out a grunt that she could easily translate into a, ‘foine by me, do what ya need ta.’ And she began firing up her machines and busying herself with work. By the time she was finished, Athena informed them that they’d have a meeting discussing Molly shortly and that, due to some of the content of it being a bit upsetting, it was not mandatory, but knowing that he’d probably go anyway, she officially cleared him to attend.

“You already know what they’re gonna say?” he asked her as he pulled his shorts back on.

“Roughly.” She admitted, “I did see some what Molly unlocked yesterday…”

“Unlocked?” he repeated.

“Yes, it turns out we would have saved ourselves a lot of time and effort if we had asked her if she knew anything about the stick she gave you way back when you found her.” She looked down at her arm, she had worn a long sleeve blouse to keep the bruise out of Molly’s sight, the memory of the gun being pointed at her and how Molly managed to get them help with her strange powers flashing through her head. She gently rubbed the spot, pain crackling up her arm when she did so, “She knows far more than we thought she did, we should have assumed that, while she was lacking in formal education, that she knew something that could have helped us.”

“We did.” He reminded her, “But she couldn’t talk, remember?”

“She didn’t _need_ to talk to unlock that data. She did so with a few flicks of her fingers and told us that she had been specifically taught to do so back at Hyde for whomever may…” her throat felt thick with disgust and dread as she spat out the words, “_buy_ her.”

He let out a growl, “Those fuckers are gonna wish they never let ‘er out of their sight when ‘m done with ‘um.”

While she knew she shouldn’t think such things, the first words that popped into her head after he said that was, “Here here!” Didn’t stop her from smiling at his words, though.

“Anyway, I only saw parts of it, it was about 9:30 or so when Winston and I decided to call it a night and let Athena go over the rest of it alone.” She continued, “so there could be plenty I don’t know about.” He let out a thoughtful hum as they made their way to the door, finding Junkrat, Mei, Zarya, Molly and Bob not too far down the hall, the two women holding their purses while Molly held her piggy bank. Zarya was cradling Bob in her arms, “He is quite light, we will need to feed him more.” she observed, concerned.

“I can go get some more ham for ‘im from th’ kitchen!” Molly volunteered, worried for her new friend.

“No!” Zarya said firmly, “That is only for special occasions, like meeting everyone here, we should not spoil him!”

“It’s not loike he ain’ due for a spoilin’.” Junkrat argued, indicating the dog, “I mean, we did get a fair bit of rubbish out of ‘is fur this mornin’…”

“I found a lolly in one of ‘is wrinkles!” Molly dutily informed them.

“We can get food for him while we’re out.” Mei stated, ending the debate there and then, “We can go down to the pet shop and pick up everything else we’ll need for Bob there as well as take him to the vet.”

“There’s a shop jus’ fer pets?” Molly asked, amazed.

“Of course! Pets are an important part of one’s family!” Zarya declared, “I went there often as a child to get toys for my dogs!”

“I can get toys fer Bob there, too?!” she squealed excitedly.

“Of course!” Zarya confirmed, “I will help you find the best toy for him!” Molly smiled broadly and wrapped her arms around the woman’s legs, “Thank you, Zarya!” she cried. The woman’s expression softened as she bent over and scooped up the child into her Bob-free arm, “There is no need to thank me, but it is still appreciated.” She said with a smile as Angela and Roadhog finally reached them.

“Good morning.” She greeted, the others replied in kind, Junkrat looking sheepishly at Roadhog, “No _hard_ feelings, Mate?” he asked, seemingly unable to not slip such a dirty joke in there, but Angela still couldn’t help giggle at it so she couldn’t say anything about that. Roadhog seemed to stare at him for a moment before gently punching him in the arm, the power of which still sending him sprawling backwards a bit and probably leaving a bruise, but he accepted that he deserved it and laughed it off before they asked what they were doing there, Molly gasped, horrified but Junkrat assured her that it didn’t hurt. (And made pained faces when she wasn’t looking.)

“Well, it ain’ mandatory, so a bunch of us figured it be good ta try ta take ‘er out fer th’ day, ya know?” Junkrat explained, “Molly prob’ly don’ wanna sit there while everyone’s talkin’ ‘bout ‘er ‘n feelin’ sorry for ‘er, so we figured tha’ we’d take ‘er out fer some fun. Ta help get ‘er moind off of it, plus, we need ta get stuff fer Bob anyways, so two birds, one stone…” He glanced at Mei, “I say tha’ roight?” She nodded, the snowflake that dangled from her hair pin bounced a bit as she did.

“Who is going?” Angela asked.

“Well, me, Zarya, Snowball ‘ere…”

“My name is Mei!” she corrected, “Snowball is my little robotic friend!”

“Loike I said, me, Zarya, Snowball ‘ere,” Mei began swatting at him, which he smiled at as he held her away from him, using his long arms to his advantage, the two smiling and close to collapsing into chuckles as he continued, “Hana, Lúcio, ‘Metra, Genji, Brigitte, Lena, Emily, Molly ‘n Bob.”

“Do you mind if I tag along as well?” She asked, surprising him, “I already have a good idea on what the meeting will be about specifically and I wanted to get something for Ana’s birthday next week but couldn’t while we were out yesterday…”

“Sure! Th’ more th’ merrier!” he said cheerfully.

“You wanna come too, Hog?” Molly asked eagerly from Zarya’s arms. He gently ruffled her hair, “Not today, gotta go to th’ meetin’.”

“But Athena said it wasn’ manta- madna-…” she struggled with the word.

“Mandatory.” The adults said in unison, “Yeah tha’!” she said, pleased that they knew what she had meant before looking up at him sadly, “’N Rat said tha’ it means tha’ ya don’ hafta go…”

“It does mean tha’. But if ‘m gonna be yer Da’, then I havta know this stuff.” He said firmly, his little girl’s cheeks turned pink, but her sad expression didn’t falter as she mumbled out an, “Okay…”

“Come on, cheer up! We can find lots of places for you two to explore another time, right Zarya?” Mei asked. The Russian weightlifter nodded boldly and bounced Molly and Bob in her arms, “We can also go to that tea shop from yesterday, their little cakes were tasty!” Molly tried to get excited about it, but she still seemed to be in a funk. The women looked at each other, worried, while Junkrat looked at his friend, his eyes narrowed in thought before he politely excused them both and pushed his friend further down the hall, the two talking in hushed voices for a bit, while the others who were planning to leave with them joined the four girls and the dog and watched as Junkrat urged him to do something and saying that, “It’s only fair! She don’ loike this ‘n you don’ loike tha’, bettah tha’ ya both learn ‘bout it ‘n accept it!”

“What are they talking about?” Brigitte asked, they shrugged. Molly rubbed her forehead again, this time, without a pained expression on her face, as if she was trying to find out by using her powers on purpose instead of holding them back and having little moments where they worked despite her best efforts.

“Somethin’ ‘bout Hog’s mask…” Molly managed, quickly closing her eyes and rubbing her forehead, her expression pained for a moment before it seemed to fade.

“What about it?” Lúcio asked.

“I dunno.” Molly shrugged, “Just know they’re talkin’ ‘bout it.”

“Speaking of which, does anyone know why he wears it?” Hana pondered.

“Ta help him breathe.” Molly said without skipping a beat, “Kinda loike Genji’s metal parts help him do all his stuff.” Genji then struck a pose, making the younger Overwatch members giggle.

“Seriously?” Emily asked.

“Yes, it seems as though his lungs didn’t accommodate well to the sudden radiation.” Mercy confirmed.

“I don’t think much would accommodate well ta that!” Lena stated.

Roadhog muttered something at his lanky companion before they could hear Junkrat hiss, “If ya don’, I’ll show ‘er meself ‘n you won’ loike it.” In a tone none of them had heard him use before, it was angry, fierce and a bit frightening.

“I have never heard him talk like that before…” Satya murmured, her face neutral but the girls standing there knew that she was covering her ass right now and bit back giggles.

“Me neither.” Molly confirmed, making them all stop for a moment as Roadhog seemed to sigh and give in before the two walked back over, Junkrat looking quite triumphant.

“Hey Molly, guess what?” he said cheerfully.

“What?” She obeyed.

“Since Hog’s gonna be learnin’ some stuff ‘bout you tha’ you ain’ comfortable with, when we get back, he’s gonna show ya what’s under his mask.” He declared, surprising the group, especially Angela.

“You mean he hasn’t shown her before?” she asked, shocked. She had seen what was under there, but that was because she had removed it for him to get a proper reading on his breathing without the mask throwing it off. She’d seen some facial scars, but she hadn’t gotten to look for very long before Roadhog managed to cough out that he needed it to breathe and she put it back on with a pout.

“Nope.” Junkrat confirmed, the ‘p’ popping as the word slid off his tongue, “But ‘e will when we get back!” he sang as he began urging them towards the garage, “Come on, now, we’ve got a dog ta pamper.”

“And take to the Groomers.” Satya added, “You did say we would try to take him there today.” She reminded him.

“Oh yeah, did say tha’…” he recalled. Hana pulled out her phone and tapped on it for a moment, “There’s a groomers at the pet shop, we can drop him off to get groomed and get all his stuff.” She reported.

“Well then we’d better get moving before it gets crowded!” Genji suggested.

“Hang on, mate.” Junkrat said, “Let ‘er say bye ta Dadhog first.”

“Dadhog?” Roadhog rumbled, the others giggling a bit, “Yeah, fits ya.” He said proudly. Roadhog let out a grunt before taking Molly from Zarya, giving her a hug and softly telling her to be good before handing her to Junkrat and telling her to, “Keep him out of trouble.”

“No promises.” She replied without missing a beat.

“Oi!” Junkrat complained, chuckling as they walked towards the garage. Angela hung back a bit, thoughtful.

“What?” Roadhog asked gruffly.

“I think Junkrat may have been on to something.” She said, smirking.

“Oh?” he questioned.

“Yes.” She said, gently poking him in the stomach, “Being a father suits you.” And with that, she followed the others to the garage, leaving a shocked Roadhog behind.


	18. Uncles, Brothers 'n Bobs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rat thinks about his position in Roadhog's and Molly's lives and goofs off in a petshop with the others.

Junkrat had offered to go back with Mercy to collect her wallet and keys, giving the excuse that, since they were going to get Bob groomed at the pet shop, he should grab a bit more cash from his room just in case, leaving Molly behind with the others so she could chat with Zarya a bit about different types of dog toys and games to play with Bob.

He hadn’t heard exactly what she’d said to Roadhog, but seeing his friend that flustered and slack jawed was always a treat and he couldn’t help but want to know what exactly she had said to make the unshakable mountain tremble bit before making his way to the briefing room for the meeting.

“What you say to ‘um?” he asked her, still laughing, “Haven’ seen him react loike tha’ in a while!”

“I told him you were right about being a dad suiting him.” she replied simply.

“Ya told ‘im I was roight ‘bout tha’? No wonder ‘e’s in shock!” he snickered, getting an odd look from her, “I think you both aren’t giving yourselves enough credit when it comes to Molly.” She said plainly, a bit annoyed by this fact, “He’s doing his best to be a good father and a good influence while you seem to be helping him by skating somewhere between being an uncle and an older brother to her…”

The uncle thing he had already accepted, proudly and loudly, but the older brother thing surprised him a bit, especially since he was pretty sure he had been an only child…

“What makes ya say tha’?” he posed, curious.

“You mean besides him watching out for both of you much like a parent would?” she offered, he gave her a flat look, “Don’ ‘member havin’ ta pay me parents fer watchin’ me arse.” He murmured.

“You’re still _paying_ him?” she blurted, shocked.

“Well, yeah.” He said with a shrug, “I know I ain’ th’ easiest bloke ta work with but ‘m a bloke ya can keep ta me word, especially with me mates.” He kept out the part that, other than Hog, he really hadn’t had any friends in Junkertown… well, okay, if you didn’t count the two siblings who helped him out after he lost his leg when he was younger and alone in the Outback and took care of him for a bit, but he’d fucked that up so long ago and figured they wouldn’t want to see him again and there was no use thinking much more on it… so he kept talking, “‘n he wasn’ too keen on joinin’ up ‘ere when we first took th’ job, worried you guys were pullin’ our legs ‘n we’d end up back on th’ run after one job.” Upon seeing her horrified expression, he reminded her that, “Hyde seemed loike a good place ta work too, ‘n they fucked us over as soon as they could. Can’ blame ‘im fer bein’ cautious.” She nodded at that, still a bit upset by the fact that Roadie hadn’t really trusted them.

“Oi, don’ be loike tha’!” he exclaimed, “He really loikes it ‘ere now tha’ ‘e knows tha’ everyone ‘ere are honest blokes ‘n sheilas, struth!” he promised her before continuing on to say that, “’N after we found Molly, I figure takin’ care of a kid can’ be cheap, so I keep payin’ ‘im so he can afford ta give ‘er a good loife ‘ere.” He looked down at his old boot and peg leg, “Trust me,” he said with a bitter chuckle, “I know how bad loife can be fer a kid all by themselves out there…” he shook his head, as if he could shake away the horrors he’d seen when he was her age. “Anyways,” he said, trying to keep his head out of the past by doing one of the things he did best; talking a lot.

“Even if he don’ use it now, figure it’s foine if he saves it too, maybe Molly can be the first Junker kid in ‘er generation ta go ta college or somethin’. Can’ hurt ta have a bigger pot when ya got another mouth ta consider.”

She gave him a sympathetic look before he quickly returned to the original topic at hand, “So ya said ‘m loike an older brother to ‘er, so ‘sides Hog watchin’ out fer us, what else makes ya say tha’?”

“Well, you both seem to get along much like siblings would, you two play a lot, you two cheer each other up and you teach her as much as you can, and you consider both Roadhog and Molly’s feelings about things and step in where needed.” She looked at him, “But now that I’m saying all this out loud, it doesn’t really matter exactly where exactly you fit on a famliy tree, does it? You see them as family and just want to help where you can, so it really doesn’t matter what you’re labeled as, as long as you’re there when they need you, right?”

“…” Rat didn’t answer, not even knowing what he could say to that, but glancing down at the good doctor, he could see that she wasn’t expecting an answer, so he kept his mouth shut and consider her words.

He hadn’t really thought too much about it, but he supposed he did consider both Molly and Roadie’s feelings a lot and jumped in where he felt he could help, like making Hog promise to show Molly what was under his mask when they got back later to make up for all the things he’d learn about her today that she wouldn’t be comfortable with… mainly because he remembered what happened when the announcement rang out about the new information they had on her while he and Torbjörn had been teaching her how to make smoke bombs in the workshop. He remembered her body stiffening and how she curled into herself, her cowlicks somehow becoming disheveled within seconds... When the older man asked if she was really okay with all this, she was quiet for a moment, as if carefully picking out her words, finally saying, “I know I gotta. I know tha’ it’s better if I do. But I don’ wanna see you guys look at me funny or nothin’ when I say it.”

“How do ya know we’ll look at you funny?” He’d asked. Molly gave him a world weary look that made his chest ache for her, “’Cause I prob’ly would, if I was you…”

Rat had managed to distract her with a line of questions asking if she was him, then who would he be and so on before the old smith reminded them to keep working and they managed to exchange worried looks at one another while she was focused on carefully following the recipe he gave her for her first batch of smoke bombs.

While they had been eating (and before the bot came over) he found that, once he thought hard enough about it, he could understand where she was coming from. Having to admit something about yourself that you weren’t comfortable sharing was hard enough, but to so many people? And with all the new information that Winston told Old 76 they had found that she would likely not know all that much about, well, having a room full of people looking at you funny and talking about stuff you don’t like and learning things about yourself that you had no time to prepare for along with everyong else and seeing everyone feeling sorry for you… Well, he’d guess that would probably be God awful at the very least.

But at the same time, he knew how Hog felt about this meeting, it was something that, as a parent, he needed to do. There were things about his little girl to be learned and he’d be there to soak every fact he could in so he could do his best as her Dadhog. But did Molly have to go and deal with everyone feeling sorry for her and shit? He wondered…

But forgot to talk to Hog about it until after he was out for the count, so he would have to make a call for him… ‘’m so fucked it ain’ even funny.’ He had thought at the time. Rat shook his head, he couldn’t think like that right now! Hog and Molly (and maybe Bob?) needed him here! He couldn’t let them down! … but at the same time, he didn’t want to piss Hog off by doing something he shouldn’t of. So he had to think like Hog here; How would he feel if his little girl was upset or uncomfortable?

Junkrat recalled how he’d found Roadhog cradling her in his arm at 2 am last week while making her some Milo, a blanket wrapped around her, one of his stuffed toys in her arms as she sniffled and wiped at lingering tears as he sung her a lullaby (it was admittedly hard to understand what it was at first due to his mask muffling it quite a bit) to comfort her after she woke up from a nightmare, crying and knocking on his door in a frantic panic. And when Hog later discovered that her room had apparently been trashed at some point during that night when she’d finally calmed down and he’d gone to tuck her back in, Molly explained that her space was often messy when she’d wake up from bad dreams, but she didn’t know how or why but it hardly ever made her feel better. He was especially horrified at the damage the traps they’d left around her bed did to her furniture and the floor and walls, he was worried that next time she had a nightmare and this happened, she might not be so lucky to get out unscathed, so the largest Junker decided that they should stop laying them out for a while until they could figure out what had happened and piled them in her closet for the time being. (Junkrat didn’t get the memo on this part until the next morning, but he had agreed with his pal, better safe than down a limb because losing limbs sucked, he would know better than anyone else here… okay, except maybe for Genji.)

So, Hog would probably agree with him about this issue because Hog wanted her to always be happy, safe and comfortable. (And Rat knew better than to remind his large, powerful pal that ‘always’ was too high a standard for them.)

With his mind made up, he had happily walked over to Morrison’s door and, after banging on his door and seeing the old man snarl at him in pajamas covered in US flags, 76 demanded to know, “What the hell is so important that you need to wake me up in the middle of the night…?!”

“Can you make th’ meetin’ tomorrow optional?” he interrupted, knowing if he let him go on, they’d both be up all night listening to the man bitch.

“Why would I do that?” he inquired, half annoyed but also half curious, so he explained that, “Look, I don’ think Molly’ll loike bein’ stuck in a room bein’ talked ‘bout with people feelin’ sorry fer ‘er ‘n lookin’ at ‘er funny ‘n shite. Can’ ya just make it voluntary? Jus’ ta spare ‘er from tha’ at least? Hog’ll go, but he’d be damned if we all make her feel all…” he paused, unable to find the right word to describe her possible future discomfort, “What’s th’ word…?”

“Self-conscious.” The old soldier replied, rubbing his forehead and looking a bit guilty as he sighed, “Never even thought about that, but you’re right. I think anyone would feel that way in that situation… But this is something we all need to know.”

“Then tell th’ people who don’ know ‘n didn’ go ‘bout it all later when Molly ain’ around.” He said simply, “Th’ people who don’ go ta th’ meetin’ can take ‘er out for th’ day, maybe get some stuff fer ‘er pup in town while th’ rest learn more ‘bout ‘er. When they get back, ya take ‘um aside one by one ‘n tell ‘um th’ basics.”

“Hmmm…” Morrison scratched his chin thoughtfully and narrowed his eyes at him, “Not a bad idea.” He admitted, “But I’ll wait until Winston and Athena brief me tomorrow before making that call. There could be nothing too bad in there as far as we know now.” He pointed out. Rat nodded, but he seriously doubted it. Molly wouldn’t have minded so much if it wasn’t a big deal, but he kept his mouth shut about that before saying good night and heading to his own room with a yawn and plopped on his bed and fell asleep for a good six hours or so (which was great, considering his often lack of sleep) and after waking up and spending a half hour blissfully recalling Sym- _Satya_ saying his real name, he finally dragged his ass out of bed to wake Molly at about nine in the morning. It hadn’t been long since they’d gone to bed, now that he thought about it, but he did say bright and early and it was probably the earliest he could get her up. He practically dragged her out of bed, Bob in tow, for them to get some breakfast. After having the AI inform them that the meeting wasn’t mandatory (and explaining what that word meant to Molly), the three of them ate. Molly and Rat enjoyed some pancakes that McCree had made for everyone. He had also handed over a plate of sausage, slices of ham and a small cheese omelet for Bob. Once they were all done eating, he and Molly crept around the cafeteria giggling while he held Bob, asking anyone who walked in, “G’day, have you met Bob?” and shoving the dog in their face to get a dog spit facial before taking them both back to her room to get dressed and ready for the day before heading back to the kitchen to pull some of the more bulky garbage out of Bob’s fur so Mercy didn’t have a fit about him messing up her nice, clean surgery.

Hog had been sleeping soundly when the three of them finally poked their heads into the infirmary.

“He’s so peaceful.” He chuckled as they heard a loud snore erupt from the largest Junker, “’N loud…” Molly marveled, making him laugh harder. He would not be either for very much longer in a few seconds, not that he was really sure how his buddy survived the night without being hooked up to that weird machine of his. Junkrat didn’t even have to open his mouth. He saw the big guy snoozing on his stomach with a blanket over his ass and could see his pants on the ground. And while he knew that Mercy had operated on his ass, he still ended up giggling manically as he dropped both Molly and Bob on either side of his friend’s face and watched the magic.

“Hog?” Molly called as Bob began licking his face. After a groan and mumbling, Molly looked at Junkrat for guidance, not used to being the one waking someone else up and far more experienced at being the one woken up. “Poke ‘im ‘n call ‘is name repeatedly, works fer me!” he urged.

Molly did, jabbing him with her index fingers and calling out his moniker over and over and over again, “Hog? Hog. Hooogggg!” until he groaned, “I’m up.”

“Hog!” she said cheerfully before giving him a hug, Bob took that as his cue to begin slobbering all over his mask, Rat feeling the lenses of his mask focusing on him, he shrugged, still chuckling, “I promised ‘er I’d bring ‘er ‘ere bright ‘n early ta see ya.” He explained, “’N what kinda Uncle would I be if I broke me promises?”

After a soft grumble and a slow turn under the blanket, he sat up.

“How’s your bum?” Molly asked, smiling at the end of the question because butts are still funny.

“It’s foine. Mercy patched me up, ‘m all better now.” He assured her.

“I’ll bet.” Rat said, picking up his shorts, “Any reason ya didn’ put these back on, mate?” he asked deviously.

“I was knocked out so she could pull th’ bullet out.” He reminded him.

“Yeah, _sure_.” He teased, although he had actually seen him knocked out earlier and Mercy told him as much, but… he kinda sorta wanted to give him a bit of a hard time about it. After all, he was here while his best friend (who often gave him a hard time) was sitting there with his pants down (literally and figuratively) and he was NOT gonna pass this chance up. Plus, maybe if he pushed enough, Hog would go for it because he could see that he really wanted it and would let himself have this chance… or do it at the very least to shut him up about it. Rat wasn’t picky, he’d accept either at this point.

The tone he got in reply was a warning one, “_Rat_.”

“Oh come on, mate, it ain’ loike yer crush ain’ _obvious_ to me ‘n Molly ‘ere.” He said, “Think even Bob’s caught on...”

Molly nodding in agreement, “It’s true. We know. ‘N I think it’s great, I mean…” her cheeks turned pink, “I don’t really know much ‘bout Mums, but I think she’s already koinda loike me Mum already…” she admitted bashfully as she shyily fiddled with her fingers.

“There ya go then!” He said with an air of finality as he motioned towards the door, “Now go out there ‘n officially get Molly a Mum, yeah?”

“**_Rat!_**” he snarled, irritated.

“What? Why won’ ya at least _try_?” he asked, exasperated.

“Yeah. I wanna know too.” Molly seconded, “What about you, Bob?” Bob tilted his head in what they could all only assume was a curious expression.

Roadie wasn’t very keen on talking about this, obviously, but sighed and mumbled out a, “’Cause it ain’ jus’ ‘bout what I want or what Molly wants ‘ere. It’s what Mercy wants too.” He then spread his arms out, “Look at me, who’d want a piece of this?” he asked.

“How do you know she don’ if ya don’ ask ‘er?” Molly countered, making Rat chuckle as he carefully patted her on the back with his flesh hand, “Yeah, mate. How do ya know?”

“Fawkes…” he growled, making him wince, but Molly didn’t back down, “Well if yer not gonna ask, then maybe Rat, Bob ‘n me will ask ‘er for ya!” She challenged.

The lanky junker only wished he could see his larger companion pale without the mask in the way before he smiled broadly at her suggestion and said, “Ya know, Molls, tha’ sounds loike a good idea ta me…”

“**RAT**!!” Roadie shouted as he snatched the girl and dog off of the bed and raced out the door, “If we hurry, bet we can get ‘er roight ‘fore she comes in fer his check up, whaddya think ‘bout tha’ Molls?”

“Onwards!” she sang with a laugh as he bolted out of the room, he and the little girl giggling like the little kids one of them was (and the other often acted like they were). They saw Mercy as they passed her before turning down the opposite hallway, Hog getting out of bed to chase them as they did so, bellowing his real last name down the hall, and while that would have normally made him cringe, the fact that Roadie would soon be cringing more than made up for it as they continued to laugh through the halls…

“Junkrat?” Mercy called, snapping him out of his flashback, “Are you still with me?” she asked, now holding her purse.

“Oh, sorry, doc,” he said sheepishly, deciding that a subject change was necessary here, “jus’ wondering how Hog reacted after we ran off and realized ya saw ‘im stark bollocky…”

“Bollocky?” she asked.

“In ‘is birthday suit?” he offered.

“Ah, naked.” She finally understood, “I was surprised, but far more curious about what you had said to get him running after you like that?”

“Th’ usual way, pissed ‘im off.” he said with a shrug, deciding that it’d be best to keep his friend’s crush on her a secret until he was sure that the big guy’s feelings could be returned.

“That’s what he said too.” She told him, sounding a bit disappointed that he didn’t give her any juicy details, but the fact that Hana texted them a few seconds later asking them to, “OMG HURRY UP!” They both stopped talking and raced over to the garage.

In the garage, they had Angela’s van and Hana’s car, Hana’s car held six, Angela’s van held eight. Most people wanted to go in Angela’s van since apparently Hana wasn’t the safest driver. So it was a question of who would sacrifice themselves by going in Hana’s car.

Molly eagerly asked if she and Bob could go in Hana’s car with her, and since he was a good uncle and was used to crazy driving, Rat decided to hop in Hana’s car too. Lúcio, basically being Hana’s boyfriend in everything but name (since they were both too chicken shit to make another move), volunteered to go too, despite being nervous as all hell when he sat in the passenger’s seat beside her on the way down.

It might not of helped that Rat and Molly egged her to go faster and to do tricks whle she was driving.

He and Molly had a blast laughing in the backseats while Lúcio seemed to be murmuring prayers in Portugese beside Hana and Bob was sliding a bit on the seat whenever she made a turn, the poor mutt not liking the feeling of the world sliding around under him.

When they finally got to their destination, Rat cheerfully asked where she learned how to drive.

“Well, I went to driving school and everything, but I learned mostly from video games.” She said proudly. Lúcio groaned as he pulled himself out of the car, looking a bit sick from the ride while Rat helped pull Bob out of the car, Molly right behind them with her piggy bank as they walked up towards the others in front of the store. Sym-_Satya_ (he _still_ couldn’t believe she had said it was okay to call her that! He was going to only call her that when they were alone, though, didn’t want to lose his right to say it so soon.) immediately dragged him towards the store groomers to drop Bob off before he was allowed to run through the aisles like the others were doing with Molly.

The first place they stopped off was the wall of fish tanks filled with fish of different sizes and colors and he laughed as he ran up and down the aisle with Lena, Genji and Molly to find the fish with the wackiest names and appearances and trying to mimic their faces. Second stop was the aisle full of snakes, lizards, frogs, and tarantulas. He and the guys laughed their butts off when Mei, Hana and Brigitte ran away holding back screams when Molly asked if they wanted a turn to hold the big, hairy spider she’d been allowed to hold by a perky store clerk. Molly nearly chased them, but instead realized that doing so might endanger the life she literally held in her hands and instead asked if the guys wanted to pet the odd looking creature.

Now, Junkrat learned to crush or burn certain large spiders on sight, he had to admit that it was a fuzzy little weirdo and that this one wasn’t bad enough to be smushed on the spot… Mercy, Zarya and Satya did make them all wash their hands after that, though.

They admired the reptiles and amphibians until Emily managed to lure Molly towards the hamsters, guinea pigs (which were, unfortunately, _not_ tiny fluffy pigs, much to Molly’s disappointment), ferrets, rabbits, chinchillas, and other small fluffy pets. He, Molly and Lúcio enjoyed watching the chincilla take a dust bath, laughing as it flailed goofily in the brightly colored stuff before they got to hold the many fluffy creatures, Hana taking as many pictures as possible before they finally got to the reason they were there:

Bob stuff.

They looked at collars, ID tags and leashes for a little while, picking out a nice red collar with white bones on it and a matching leash. It took a little while longer to pick out an ID and figure out what to put on it other than “BOB”. Finally they picked a one shaped like a little bone and had Bob’s name put on the front and ‘Overwatch’ on the back, nice and simple.

Then they got to the reason they came here to start with, the pet food aisles. Yes. Aisle**_s_**. There were about six pet food aisles and twelve of them, so they decided to have races through the aisles and report if they found dog food or not. And while it wasn’t the best way to do it, it was the most fun way they could think up so they did it anyways.

The pairs were: Lena and Emily, Lúcio and Hana, Mei and Zarya, Brigitte and Genji, Molly and Mercy and Him and Satya. With the people in the carts being Emily, Hana, Mei, Brigitte, Molly and Satya, even though Satya liked being in the cart as much as Hana, Brigitte and Mei had liked the idea of being near a giant hairy spider, Rat decided to roll her into the aisle and let her out of the cart so they could walk normally instead of race. Because, while he’d really wanted to run through the aisles laughing with her like the others would, he decided that if she wasn’t comfortable with it, he wouldn’t force her. So after the ‘on your mark, get set, go!’ and watching the three fastest (Genji, Lena and Lúcio) dash off and Zarya charge valiantly behind them. Molly looked at him and Mercy, confused, “Aren’ you guys gonna charge through too?” she asked. But before he could reply, Satya spoke in his place, “Of course, we are.” Before looking up at him, “Junkrat, if you would.” He felt a large smile grow on his face as he dashed forward, slipping a hand behind Satya so she wouldn’t painfully smack her head, back and neck into the plastic pull out seat for children behind her, calling out to Molly that he’d see her on the other side before laughing as the labels and bags blurred into colorful blobs as he focused on getting to the end.

They came second to last, but that was only because Molly and Mercy hadn’t come through their aisle yet. The group quietly pushed their carts towards the end of the aisle, Mercy and Molly on the far end of it, Mercy holding up a can and her face contorting with rage as Molly cheerfully told her something.

“**_THEY FED YOU DOG FOOD_**?!” she bellowed, furious.

“Uh oh…” he heard himself say.

“Abort race!” Hana cried, “Abort race!”

“Angie’s rage is buildin’ loves, this ain’t a drill!” Lena warned as they all helped their racing partners out of the carts and ran over to get more information about what she was talking about.

“What’s going on?” Mei asked, the good doctor turned to her, her face red with anger, “Molly recognized this brand of dog food.” She growled, holding out a can for them. Emily took it carefully and looked at it, “It’s really cheap wet dog food, what about it?”

“They _fed_ this to her. This was put on her plate for her to eat. I’ve been wondering why she’s small for her age, and _this is probably why_. They hardly gave her enough to eat in general and they didn’t even bother giving her something with enough nutrients to help a growing child!” she fumed.

“’M small fer my age?” Molly repeated, a bit upset at this information.

“Now, hang on…” Genji said, holding up his hands, as if to show the angry woman that he was unarmed before walking a bit closer to Molly and asking, “What else did they give you to eat?”

“Bananas, Potatoes, rice ‘n veggies ‘n milk, they didn’t really give us a lot of tha’…but if we were really good ‘n did what they said, we got jam ‘n crackers ta take back ta our safes!” she said, sounded excited at the prospect. And he had a good idea as to why…

“Why was that such a treat?” Satya asked.

“It wasn’t a treat.” Rat said firmly before looking Molly right in the eyes, “It was yer emergency food supply, wasn’ it?” he guessed. Molly nodded, pleased that he understood, “Yeah! They weren’ allowed in th’ safes unless we needed a doctor, ‘n they weren’ allowed ta take th’ crackers ‘n jam from there if we were bad. So they were great ta have when ya were sent ta yer safe without eatin’.” She then gave them all a big smile, “’N th’ nice cafeteria lady who served lunch ta th’ scientists always gave me Strawberry Jam! She said tha’ since I was th’ sweetest kid ‘n always waved ‘n smiled at them when they’d bring us over, she would only give me th’ best koind!”

Luckily, that last bit was sweet enough to soothe the angry Mama bear known as Mercy to a low simmer so she could take a few deep breaths to finish calming down before Lúcio grabbed a big bag of dog food and plopped it into the cart along with the leash, collar and Brigitte quickly suggested that they stick to giving Bob dry food before quickly leading the way to another aisle to get him a water and food bowl.

Hana gently poked Junkrat’s shoulder, “Did you have emergency food supplies that you kept as a kid?” she asked quietly.

“Hardly ever had food in general growing up in Oz. ‘N when I got it, I ate it as soon as I could since I never knew when I’d get another chance ta.” He said with a shrug, seeing no need to sugar coat it for her, since she seemed prepared to hear the worst, “When we left Junkertown, we _did_ keep emergency food in whatever safe house we managed ta get, but we’d still end up leavin’ it behind more often then not when runnin’ from th’ coppers. So we stopped doin’ tha’ after a while.”

She nodded softly, “So Molly’s situation was better than yours?”

Rat paused, thoughtful, “Can’ say tha’ it was when she was at Hyde, but it’s bettah than moine was at her age now, ain’ it?” She smiled at that, “Of course, you didn’t have me then!” She laughed.

“In my defense, you probably were just a little thing when I was ‘er age.” He said, “I’d be more worried ‘bout keepin’ you safe then meself if you plopped down in Junkertown one day.” She gently punched him in the flesh arm, “Good to know you’d have my back if I was ever dropped in the Outback!” she said warmily.

“I’d have any of yer backs there if you had mine.” He laughed, “’Specially since th’ Queen of Junkertown ain’ exactly fond of me.”

“You guys have a Queen?” she asked, fascinated.

“Yeah, she’s not th’ noicest sheila, but she could’ve had me ‘n Hog killed, but instead, she jus’ kicked us out.” He said, “Not th’ worst thing tha’ happened to us, she hated us anyways. Dunno why she didn’ loike Hog, but I knew why I wasn’ ‘er favorite!” he laughed, “’N it ain’ jus’ ‘cause I didn’ pay me taxes!”

“You guys have taxes?” She laughed, he threw his flesh arm around her shoulders, “Tell ya what, Hog ‘n me teach Molly about Junker loife over arvo tea, pop by any toime, we can teach ya a thing or two ‘bout th’ MEKA battles, th’ offical sport of Junkertown!” he offered, “Betcha you’d loike tha’!”

“I’ll be there!” she agreed.

“Rat! Hana! Come on! Zarya’s gonna pick out th’ best toy fer Bob!” Molly called back to them, urging them forward to watch the pink haired Russian look at each toy in the aisle with squinted eyes and a thoughtful pout, picking one up on occasion with a serious expression on her face before putting it back down.

Rat looked around at the group of them crowded in the aisle. When he was Molly’s age, he was alone in a radiated wasteland, his parents were gone, and no one else really seemed to care about him, while she had so many people who cared about her and not even all of them were here right now. So even though he wasn’t there to hear about what she had been through, he knew she was going to be okay because she wasn’t facing her troubles alone. And now that he thought about it, neither were he and Roadie.


	19. Possibilities 'n panic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The ones back at base learn about Molly's past and Hog doesn't take it well. Then they get more bad news because, of course they would.

Roadhog soaked in the information he had just gained in the half hour he’d been sitting here, listening to the ape and his virtual girlfriend go on and on about his little charge.

It turns out that Lúcio was right about Molly being psychic. It turns out that she could not only hear what people were thinking, but she could probably bench everything he, Reinhardt and Zarya did at the gym everyday with ease with just her mind…

Before those guys made her shut down due to grief and fear.

He’d nearly left the room to collect Rat for a revenge spree on every Hyde building on the planet after hearing what happened to her, but Reinhardt, McCree, Hanzo, Torbjörn and Pharah managed to tackle him down to the floor (The bots wisely chose not to join the Roadhog restricting dog pile) and remind him that Molly was safe from them here.

“But what ‘bout th’ others?” he had demanded to know, “If what yer sayin’ is true, then Molly’s got safes full of siblin’s tha’ need savin’! If they’re even still ‘loive!”

“I agree.” Ana said firmly, “But we need to know how many we are talking here, taking in one child is fine, but who knows how many are alive?”

“Less than half of them, Molly included, are still alive, as far as we know.” Winston said, his tone warped with frustration, sadness and… understanding? Had he been a test subject at some point? Maybe, after all, normal gorillas don’t talk or invent things. That point slipped his mind as Winston pulled up some figures, “Twelve of them died of health complications not too long after birth. Another fifteen died on operating tables or due to later health problems, such as allergic reations to medicines and food. But thirty three died during Hyde’s many ‘tests’ to understand the limitations of their abilities. Molly was a witness to one such death, which is why she’s been holding herself back. Which is why she’s been having troubles using these powers of hers. And why they decided to sell her to Talon.” He pulled up an image of an older woman with short, red hair, with some sort of weird metal patch on her face over one of her eyes, could it have to do with why she had one red eye and one blue eye, or was she just a weirdo? Hog had no idea who she was or what the fuck she had to do with it, but McCree seemed to.

“Moira O’Deorain? She’s involved with this shit too?!” He blurted.

“You know ‘er?” Roadhog asked.

“She worked with me, Genji ‘n Reyes in Blackwatch. She was a smart little lady, but she didn’t seem ta understand ethics very well, or if she did, she didn’t care. Liked playing with DNA, fucking with people in ways I never want ta understand.” He shivered a bit, “She’s handy when she’s on your side, but when she’s with your enemies.” He looked at Roadhog, “Let’s just say that I’m glad that you ‘n Rat are on our side, Amigo. ‘Cause we’re gonna need all the help we can get with her around.”

“Especially since she is now the Minister of Genetics in Oasis.” Winston reported, getting concerned whispers from the others around him.

“Excuse me.” Hanzo said, getting up from his seat, “I believe there are a few of us here, such as Orisa, who do not know much of Oasis and would benefit from a brief explanation about it.” Roadhog gave him a small nod, grateful that he didn’t exactly have to ask about it himself (and that the bot was being blamed for the explanation), being a Junker gave you little advantages other than being masters of survivial and somewhat used to more radiation than most, being up to date on world news was another disadvantage they’d had. Who cared about this or that happening on the other side of the world? You needed to focus on staying alive here, no time to waste on that crap, not that they got much information about the outside world in Junkertown, but still…

“Very well, Oasis is a scientific collective found in Iraq. They have Ministers, or heads of certain fields, that help make all major decisions that the group does.” Winston explained.

“So she has power and authority with those eggheads in Iraq,” Torbjörn summed up, “And she can sway funds fer certain projects in her favor.”

“So these Oasis blokes helped ‘er torture lil’ kids?” Hog asked, the one man apocalypse wondering how satisfying it would be to wreck those nerdy bastards to avenge all of Molly’s fallen siblings as well as her and her living ones for all the pain and trouble they’d caused.

“No.” Winston said firmly, “It seems as though she came onto this on her own, without pay even, in exchange for choosing several children to have sent to her Talon backers. Molly was one of them, apparently she was the one Dr. O’Deorain was most excited about.” He looked at Roadhog, “It appears she was very disappointed that they only had gotten eggs from one Junker, she was eager to see how the constant radiation changed their DNA and apparently Oasis is too fearful to try to collect such data and Talon probably vetoed sending their people to get some as well.”

“Good thing, too.” Morrison said, “Apparently Molly’s junker DNA has made her far more immune to the negative effects of radiation than the others, something the ‘good’ doctor made them test to be sure, they only tested it on her and five others, but considering that she was the only one to survive that experiment, they didn’t do any further testing…”

“But why would they want children who could live through the effects of radiation?” Reinhardt asked.

“Prob’ly so they could get somethin’ from a dangerous, radiated place without riskin’ too many of their own loives.” Roadhog answered, looking to Winston, “Those bastards followed us halfway ‘round th’ world fer whatever Rat found in th’ Omnium back in Oz, weren’t afraid ta aim ta kill, neither. Whatever they want from those places, they wanted ta use Molly ta get ‘um.”

“They are after something he had stolen from the destroyed Omnium?” Winston blurted, shocked, “Why on Earth did he…? How on Earth did he…?”

“It’s Rat.” Hog said flatly, as if that was the only explanation needed (and honestly, it really was), “He wanted ta get outta Junkertown ‘n figured tha’ there had ta be something really valuable in there. So he went in ‘n got it. Met ‘im when Queenie’s goons went in ta take a share of th’ goods.”

“Queenie?” Pharah asked, finally speaking for the first time in this meeting.

“Yeah, th’ self-proclaimed ‘Queen of Junkertown’, she’s a roight bitch, but fer some reason Rat ‘n me are th’ only ones who seem ta know tha’, everyone else loves ‘er. Don’ ask me why. Rather see ‘er dead, struth.”

“So you have no idea what Junkrat found in there?” Morrison asked, trying to keep the discussion from drifting off course. Roadhog shrugged, “I doubt ‘e knows what ‘e found in there. ‘E jus’ knows it’s valuable. Tha’s all we really need ta know.” He thumbed back at the bots, “They prob’ly have a better idea than we do, weren’ they made there or somethin’?”

Bastion looked to Zenyatta and beeped a bit before Zenyatta began translating, “When we were made, we did not see every part of the Ominum, and Orisa knows nothing about the interior of an Ominum either, she was built in a garage in Numbani.”

“That is correct!” she answered cheerfully, “Efi built and designed me herself! I do not know what an Omnium even looks like!”

“Big white dome.” Roadhog informed her, “Ours had plenty of radiation ‘round it and a hole in the roof.”

“Noted! Thank you, Agent Roadhog!” she said, sounding pleased to learn something new, “I will have to inform Molly of this, as she was quite curious about radiation!”

“Oh?” Ana asked, “How so?”

“Apparently she overheard some of the ‘white coats’, which I confirmed to be what she calls scientists, mention it at some point. Saying something like, ‘what does she want us to do? Soak them with the same amount of radation that fucked up the Outback? We can only give them so much without it effecting us too.’” She paused, then looked a bit panicked, “Oh no, I do believe I said a bad word, please forgive me, as I did not mean to do something bad!”

“It is fine.” Hanzo assured her, “You are only relaying what someone else has heard, they said the bad word, you are merely informing us of what exactly was said so we can be clear on the details, you are being helpful, not bad.” She seemed to be soothed by this and smiled brilliantly, “I see, thank you, Agent Hanzo!” Bastion patted her arm and beeped at her, the green omnic thanking him for his praise.

“So Molly was wanted for her resistance to radiation.” Winston said, “That would be quite helpful to their cause.”

“Then why not just hire Junkers?” Pharah pointed out, “Junkrat managed to get it all by himself easily enough…”

“Oi, ‘e took precautions, took meds ‘n an old radiation suit from an old lab ‘n got it. I helped ‘im get rid of th’ gear meself ‘n we was still sick fer a week after we done it. Th’ radiation near there could kill ya faster than a bullet ta th’ brain, we may have an edge, but we can still cark it if we soak up enough of tha’ shite.” He said firmly.

“That.” Torbjörn said, “And there’s no tellin’ what kinda security is in those things or the condition of that place after being abandoned for so long.”

“Uh, what if, uh…” McCree fidgeted in his seat, obviously not comfortable with sharing his idea now that all eyes were on him.

“Spit it out, McCree!” Morrison ordered.

“I-if they really wanted to, they could have Molly do what the AFL did all those years ago. That could cause plenty of chaos and would make the UN have to listen to their demands or risk another country having a large chunk of it radiated and unstable…”

Hog felt his heart and stomach sink and his lungs begin to tighten (well, more than usual) as Orisa blurted out that, “My calucations show that Molly would most likely not come out of such an event alive!”

“Yeah, but there would be plenty of radiated kids afterwards, they could just… just take their pick and train ‘um or something and do it again.” McCree pointed out. The man’s southern drawl fading out as Hog’s panicked heart beat pounded loudly in his ears.

No.

No.

NO! NO! **_NO_**!

He’d already lost enough because of that stupid plan of theirs all those years ago! These people couldn’t seriously be thinking of doing something like that _on purpose!_ Especially now that they knew the consequences of doing that, unlike the AFL did back then! He was finding air to be harder to bring in as his heart rate picked up even faster as he tried to picture Molly, scared and alone, in an empty omnium, looking for something that would kill her just because some fucktard felt that they had something to prove here and didn’t have the balls to go in themselves.

He needed to leave.

He needed to find her.

He needed to see that she was okay. That all of them were okay. He… he…

“My friend, are you alright?” Reinhardt asked, gently placing a hand on his shoulder. Hog opened his mouth to speak, but instead gasped for air as if he’d forgotten how to breathe for a moment there. The old knight watched him with an air of concern as he choked and sputtered, Ana making her way over to check on him.

“Molly…” he managed to say to the mother, who’s eyes quickly brightened in comprehension before placing a finger in front of her lips, “Shhh…” The old woman said, “Breathe. You can’t help your little girl if you cannot at least do that for yourself.” He struggled to obey through the panic, the sensation something he hadn’t experienced in years and much harder to choke through than he remembered.

“Athena.” Ana called, “Can you keep a visual on Molly and the others and the surrounding area for us please and inform us of any trouble?”

“Of course, Captain Amari.” The AI replied.

“Thank you.” She said, looking to McCree, who was a bit freaked out that his words had such a reaction on the large Junker, “I think it’d be best if you head down with him to check on the others if they’re still down there after the meeting.” He nodded, looking a bit guilty for making him freak out.

“Weren’t you in the AFL?” Pharah asked, he nodded. “Was it really that bad?”

He scowled at her, finally managing to suck in enough air to growl that it had been “Worse. Hardly found much left of th’ others when we could finally get to ‘um, ‘n that was nearly a year later, never managed ta get th’ ones tha’ went in, too dangerous. ‘N again, twenty or so years later, Rat still needed all tha’ crap jus’ ta get in ‘n out alive.” He glared at her, “Things still die when they go over. Planes still crash if they get too close. After it happened, we used ta see how th’ worst of it was receding by how far away th’ buzzards could go before dropping dead. Whatever you think it was, I can tell ya, it was worse.”

His response had seemed to be more than she expected, her expression horrified and shocked, “Then it would probably be best to warn other countries to keep an eye on their Omniums, to make sure no one goes in or out.” She said quickly.

“That could also spread mass panic, which could also be used to their advantage.” Morrison pointed out.

“So we should not warn the world of this plan to use a young girl to murder millions with radiation?” Reinhardt asked.

“I’m saying that we don’t let them near Molly at all. Neither Hyde nor Talon would use her for anything good.” He said firmly.

Bastion let out some beeps, which Zenyatta translated to, “He’s asking that you please not use the word ‘use’, as she is a living creature, not a tool.” Hog nodded, and while he wasn’t happy to agree with a creature who had been one of the reasons that damn thing was built in the first place, he was glad that they could at least agree on that front.

“Captain Amari, I have confirmed Talon agents near the pet shop. Repeat, confirmed Talon agents…”

That was all Roadhog bothered to hear before tearing out of the room and down towards his bike, barely realizing anyone had followed him until he had thrown the garage door open to the road and hopped onto his bike and saw McCree in Junkrat’s usual spot.

The Cowboy shrugged, “Ana told me ta go with ya when you went into town.” He reminded him. He didn’t bother arguing with him or insisting to go alone. There was no time for that right now, so instead, he informed him to, “Hang on” while starting up his bike with a roar of the engine and racing towards the town. The cowboy barely managing to keep his hat on as they plummeted down the road.


	20. They never will catch a break, will they?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The situation at the petshop isn't good, but Molly might have an idea of how to help.

Angela was on the floor, her whole body aching and tired. She looked up at the glowing purple blob above her and let out a soft swear in German.

Dr. O’Deorain. Moira. How could she have forgotten the cruel witch? She pondered this for a moment before deciding it was more likely that she had blocked him out due to the mountains of unpleasant memories she had because of her. She had men from Blackwatch in her clinic in pain and agony because that woman had no idea what the word ‘ethics’ meant. To that creature, the lives she toyed with were of little value, but the data she gained from their pain was priceless.

She scanned the area she was in, no one seemed to be feeling any better, making her wonder why these orbs hadn’t stopped doing whatever they were doing to them yet. Bob let out a soft whine as he struggled to come closer, wanting comfort.

“Poor thing.” She murmured softly as she managed to move her hand closer to him and gently stroke one of his mangled ears and wondered how they even got into this mess.

Oh right, they did _nothing_ to get into this mess.

They just had payed for their things and had been picking up Bob from the Groomer’s and Molly had been putting on his new collar when the sadistic… ugh, she couldn’t call that woman a doctor, not even in her head, she was too uncaring to have such a title, but she had been there, smiling down at Molly.

“Hello, my little Monster class.” She had purred, a hint of an Irish accent coming through, only she had found it devoid of the warmth that she often associated with Irish accents, “I’ve come to pick you up.”

“Monster class?” She remembered Hana repeating, confused.

“Yes.” She had said as a purple orb, similar to the one hanging above her at this very moment, formed in a knarled hand with long dark fingernails while her other, normal looking hand motioned towards Molly, who clung to Bob fearfully as the dog growled, defensive of his little master while Junkrat stepped in front of her as well, murmuring praise to the pooch as he did so.

“What did you think the ‘M’ in ‘M011’ stood for?” the Irish woman asked.

“That is not her name!” Zarya snapped, the others nodding in agreement as Hana reached into her purse and Genji’s fingers slipped out of sight. “And if you think we will let you take her from us…”

“Are you finished?” she interrupted, “Well, it doesn’t really matter anyway. You are now.” She then flung a few of those purple orbs and suddenly, all of them fell to the ground but Molly, Junkrat, Lena and Genji, who flung a few shuriken at her and made her duck and take a step back, furious that her orbs didn’t make them all weak and in pain, but seemingly fascinated by the few who were still standing, despite her orbs hovering over the entire group and Molly, who knelt on the ground to hold up her puppy, frightened by the results the orbs had brought on the members of her new family.

“Brilliant.” The woman murmured as she seemed to take them in, “I thought there would be a chance it wouldn’t work on Junkers, but to think that there would be two others who wouldn’t be bothered by my Biotic orb…” She smiled broadly with excitement, “I didn’t know it wouldn’t effect you, Genji. Or Miss Oxton here. And here I thought you all wouldn’t have any surprises for me!”

“What is she on about?” Junkrat had hissed to the two standing and original members of Overwatch. Lena shrugged, but Genji, Genji explained that, “She worked for Blackwatch back in the day. With me, Reyes and McCree.”

“’Course she worked with you ‘n Old MacDonald.” He grumbled.

“Hey!” he hissed back.

“Not now, boys.” Lena scolded softly as she pulled her own guns out of her purse, “In case you two forgot, we have plenty of innocents in here as well as our zonked out pals to keep safe…”

“That might not be as easy as you think.” A smooth Latina voice cooed from behind the group, the three of them turned, and Angela turned as well as she could at the time to see a young Hispanic woman with purple hair and a matching purple gun in her hand and a smirk on her face appear out of thin air.

“Some company you keep, Sombra!” Junkrat growled.

“Sombra?” Genji asked, probably ready to restart their argument, which Junkrat shut down as soon as he could. “Oi, you worked with tha’ witch fer how long? Hog ‘n me jus’ took one job from ‘er, th’ one in Dorato, ‘n tha’ was it!” He pointed out. “Guys!” Lena scowled.

“Hey, I don’t like her either.” she assured him, interrupting their little discussion, “But the boss said to go with her to pick something up and that’s what I’m here to do.” She glanced around before looking to O’Deorain, “Where is this weapon you all were so excited about? I don’t see anything all that impressive…” She looked at Bob, “Except the fact that dog is still somehow alive.” Molly hugged him tighter, fearful that the woman might change that.

“Did you even listen to me during those meetings?” the older woman snapped, her accent more noticeable when angered apparently.

“Not really. But I wasn’t the only one not paying attention.” Her purple companion said with a shrug. The bad ‘doctor’ sighed, “The child. The weapon is the child.” Sombra looked from the little girl hugging the dog on the floor, to her co-worker, to the child and then back to her co-worker, “You better be messing with me.” She warned.

“What are you on about?” The cloaked woman asked.

“Are you serious?” Sombra snapped, motioning to the scared little girl on the floor as she walked closer to the red head on the other side of the group, “_This_. _This_ is the weapon you helped make. _This_ is what Talon put all that money into.” She stabbed at the woman’s chest with her finger, “_This_ is one of the hundred of this fancy, ‘biological weapon’ you helped make for us? A BUNCH OF LITTLE KIDS?! THIS IS SO MESSED UP, I CAN’T EVEN!!!” The woman then began to start shouting at her in Spanish, and although that language was not Angela’s strong suit, she’d spent enough time with Jesse over the years to have a good idea of what was being said.

And none of it was pleasant.

Which was good, because it was nice to know that at least one member of Talon had a heart/soul... and was keeping her distracted as Lena, Junkrat and Genji quickly helped many of their group into the Grooming section of the store, a few of the employees noticing the commotion and quickly clearing out the store while some of the groomers quickly came out to help pull some more of them out of the line of fire.

“Are you quite done?” Moira asked her. Sombra scowled, “No! This isn’t right and you know it!”

“Ugh, you sound loike the ethics board in college.” She dismissed, her accent thick before she cleared her throat, “Let’s just grab the girl and go.” She said firmly, “The faster we’re done the faster we don’t have to be forced to stay in each other’s company.”

“No way!” Sombra shouted, “I ain’t snatching up no kids like some La Llorona! I’m out!”

“Grand.” Moira replied darkly as Sombra gave her the finger before vanishing from sight and allowing the Irish woman to see that her visible victims had decreased to just Angela, Hana, Lúcio, Zarya and Brigitte. Molly and Bob were still there, the little girl fearfully aiming the butt of her piggy bank at her while the others emerged from the grooming section, Genji holding handfuls of shuriken, Lena holding both guns and Junkrat a few small grenades in his hands as a few more employees ran out and started to drag Brigitte and Zarya to safety, the orbs still hanging overhead, taunting them and seeming to drain the people trying to help them and making it take longer as they did so.

“Molly.” Junkrat called back to them, “Keep yer piggy bank aimed at ‘er.” She nodded and Hana managed to finally pull her gun from her purse and held it tightly in her grip as she struggled to lift her arm to aim properly as Moira ran off, the three able bodied adults right after her, Lena right behind her while Genji ran atop the aisle and Junkrat dashed off into the aisle beside Genji and Lena’s places.

Leaving them alone, slumped over and weak.

“Dammit, should have brought my gear too.” Lúcio hissed, “Probably would’ve really helped us out right about now…”

“Molly.” Angela called, the little girl jumping at the sound of her name and turning towards her, “Can you dial my phone to call Jesse? It’s in my purse.” Molly nodded and crawled over and started digging through her bag until she found it and quickly tapped on the phone like a pro as she told her the passcode before finding what she needed and scooting herself, Bob and her piggy bank closer as the phone rang on speaker.

Hana let out a weak laugh, “And Jesse said that me teaching her how to use a cell phone would never come in handy.” She joked. Lúcio chuckled and even Angela had a hard time not smiling as the phone rang.

And rang.

And rang.

A familiar beeping sound and a ‘you’ve reached the voice mail box of… “the sexiest cowboy alive…”’

“Molly, hang up and try Ana.” She instructed quickly, Hana and Lúcio chuckling, Molly nodded, a bit weirded out, and did so, this time, it hardly had to ring once before Ana’s voice called out, “We’re on our way, what is your status?”

“How’d ya know we were in trouble?” Molly asked.

“Athena informed us that Talon agents were near the petshop,” her voice turned some what amused as she informed them that, “Your father was out the door before Athena finished her warning, the rest of us aren’t far behind, now what is your status?” Molly seemed more than a bit relieved at the news of Roadhog being on his way, frankly, she was too, however, Lúcio seemed concerned as a blast happened from the back of the store.

“Wait.” he said, “Agent**s**?”

“Yes.” Ana replied, now sounding worried, although if it was because of the question or the blast she could not tell. “Why? What is it?”

“But the only one that was visible when we were attacked was that weird witch lady and the lady who can turn invisible left, so what other agents are they talking…”

Angela’s phone flew out of Molly’s hand before he could finish his question, a bullet lodged in the screen, the four of them turning to see Reaper materialize in front of them. Molly screamed and aimed her piggy bank’s butt at him before closing her eyes and pulling on the plug at the bottom.

A loud fart sound came out of the piggy as it’s laser sent Reaper backwards onto his ass with a loud crash as he was flung out the window and sent Molly falling onto and over Bob and onto her rear and back.

“Molly!” She cried as the child pulled herself up, nervously looking over her worried pup’s shoulder, her cowlicks wavy and flat on her head as she asked, “D-Did I get ‘im?”

“Yeah you did!” Hana cheered, her voice weak but her eyes sparkling with pride, “I am so tag teaming shooters with you! You got him on your first shot!”

“I-I did?” she asked, shocked as Bob gave her a gentle nuzzle in congrats.

“You sent him right out the window!” Lúcio laughed, sounding tired, “He never even saw it coming!”

The good doctor managed to place a hand on Molly’s shoulder, “Roadhog will be very proud of you when he hears about this.” She said softly. The tiny blonde’s confusion and fear seemed to melt away at that as a proud smile soon covered a large portion of her face, her cowlicks curled up as tightly as they could on her head.

“I’M PUTTING YOU ON MY LIST FOR THAT!” Reaper shouted from outside. Molly’s face then shifted to confusion again, “What does tha’ mean?” she asked them.

“It means we should probably find cover.” Hana said as she started to pull herself towards the groomers doors, “If I can just…” Molly ran over to the doors and pushed it open for her and helped pull her in the best she could (which wasn’t much, but she was trying), Bob and Lúcio crawling after them with Angela in the rear. The employees were exhausted, but seemed to have enough energy to help pull the three weakened humans and Bob inside (they were more help than Molly had been pulling them in). Molly held out her piggy bank to her, “Hold this.” The child instructed.

“What?” Angela began as Molly placed it down in her lap before turning to her dog, “Bob, you’re in charge while ‘m gone. Keep everyone safe, okay?” Bob gave her a kiss on the cheek, making her giggle and give him a hug in return before telling them that, “I’ll be roight back, I think I know how ta get those things ta stop hurtin’ ya!” And running out of the room.

It had been a while since then (or maybe not, time was a bit of a difficult thing to grasp at the moment) and Molly wasn’t back yet.

Angela struggled to get up, fighting the exhaustion and pain she was being put through (as well as more of Bob’s soft whines) to see if she could find any signs of Molly or the others.

Only to see Genji, Lena, Junkrat and Molly running towards the door with…

Were those goldfish nets? And Bowls? What on Earth…

She never got to finish that thought, because the four of them ran in, smiling and out of breath as Lena cried out, “Cheers, Loves! The Calvary’s here!” a goldfish bowl with duct tape all over the top with four purple orbs inside held against her hip as she held a net in the air like a sword.

“Told ya I had an idea!” Molly said cheerfully, a roll of duct tape around her arm and a net in her hand. “’N an ace one at tha’!” Junkrat confirmed, holding another bowl under his arm and his own net while Genji swiped one of the orbs by Emily and Brigette out of the air with his net, “This will only take a second!” he said cheerfully. Junkrat and Lena joined him after putting the bowls down on a nearby table while Molly began making a little mat out of duct tape, struggling to tear it with her mouth until she remembered they had scissors here and used those. Then Lena handed Genji her net and grabbed the empty goldfish bowl from the table and held it upside down as the two carefully began to release them into the bowl. Once it was filled with the last orb, Molly pushed her little mat onto the opening and Junkrat quickly sealed the whole thing with duct tape. Once they were sure it was good, they placed it beside the other bowl.

Angela felt her body become light and energetic again and it would seem as though she wasn’t the only one. Her friends, the employees and all of the dogs and customers that had been in there too seemed to be back to normal.

Mei pulled Molly into a hug, “You are so my hero!” she cried, making her laugh.

“As much as I hate to mess up Molly’s hero’s welcome.” Genji said, “We still have a problem. Moira and Reaper are still out there.”

“And they are _not_ happy.” Lena agreed.

“But th’ others’ll be ‘ere soon!” Molly cried, “Ana said so!”

“When th’ hell did she say tha’?” Junkrat asked, eager to hear about their incoming back up.

“When I used Angela’s phone ta call ‘er.” She paused, then looked sheepishly at her, “Sorry ‘bout your phone.” She murmured guiltly. She gently ruffled the little girl’s hair, making her smile return, “Don’t worry about it, I was due for an upgrade anyway.”

“She also said Hog was out of the room before Athena told them anymore than ‘Talon agents near the petshop.’” Lúcio recalled, “So at the very least, he should be here soon.”

“And Molly did find a way to beat those horrid orbs.” Emily pointed out.

“There should be plenty of those nets through out the store.” Brigitte agreed, “We could probably hold out until back up arrives.”

“I think I can make a few of those as well as some weapons for self protection.” Satya said as she began flicking her fingers and blue shapes began to appear between her hands.

“Or even to kick their asses with!” Hana declared.

“I’m in.” Lúcio agreed.

“Same ‘ere!” Junkrat said.

“We can do this!” Mei shouted, although if it was to rally everyone or just herself, Angela didn’t know and never questioned it. They needed this positive energy. They needed to stay strong.

“Anyone have a plan of how we are going to do this?” Zarya asked.

Then the room went silent.

Teufel noch mal! So much for the positive energy…

“I think I got an idea meself.” Rat said cheerfully as he looked down at Molly, “’Member tha’ comic we read last week?” Her eyes widened in comprehension before looking up at him, “But we don’ have water balloons… Or any other koind of balloons.” She reminded him.

“Nah, but we do have those bags ta put poo in!” he reminded her, the child giggling at the word ‘poo’, “It’s th’ same principle!”

“Junkrat, Molly, perhaps you two should fill us in as well?” Angela reminded them.

“Oh, roight, sorry.” He said, motioning for them to come close, “So ‘ere’s th’ plan…”


	21. Plannin' 'n preppin'

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rat has a plan and has to make a hard choice that could make Hog finally kill him.

Junkrat squinted at the floor plan Genji had kindly scribbled up for him, Satya and Zarya by his side, the three of them pensive as they looked at the paper on the table.

Molly, Hana, Mei, Lúcio and some of the other people effectively trapped in the grooming section were filling the poop bags that Lena had gotten for them with water. Meanwhile, Emily and Brigitte were helping Mercy calm down the animals still in the groomers with Bob’s help while the employees called their customers, informing them that there was a dangerous situation at the shop and they needed to come nearby to pick up their furry family members.

“’Ere.” Rat finally said, pointing to a spot near the back, “No animals back there ‘n plenty of space ‘tween them ‘n th’ door so we can get everyone out safe.”

The two woman glared at the spot, the gears in their minds spinning.

His plan wasn’t all that complex;

Step One: Have Genji and Lena scoping the place out to find Reaper and Moira.

Step Two: Have the rest of the gang distract them with weapons and water balloons and run them around in circles while he rigged a spot to explode, Genji and Lena on net duty in case the witch used any of her orbs to make their friends easier targets.

Step Three: When he was certain everything was ready, inform the others with a smoke bomb to the floor that he was finished and to lead them over to the spot.

Step Four: The gang leads them to the spot, and when they both reach it, Boom.

Step Five: Get the fuck out of there before they have a chance to recover.

Step Six: Gloat.

He’d normally do this kind of thing on his own, but they had offered their help and well, he figured it couldn’t hurt to have their input.

“Are you sure your explosives won’t reach the support beam right here?” Satya asked, indicating a square Genji had labeled, ‘beam’.

Rat paused, thoughtful, “Yeah, at least, if th’ distance ‘ere is roight.” He then glanced over the page and pointed to another spot, “If it’s not, why don’t we make this our back up? We’d need ta split th’ group up, but if th’ blokes ‘ere are roight ‘bout where th’ back door is, it should work jus’ as well.”

“I’d like to know what products they have right here.” Zarya said, “If it is mostly glass, it could be effective against our enemies, but it might also shatter it everywhere and we could risk injuring ourselves as well if we’re too close.”

He nodded and reached for one of the walkie talkie headsets they borrowed from the employees, “Oi, Genji, Lena, whichever one of ya can make it ‘ere without gettin’ caught, need ya ta check somethin’ fer us.”

“Can’t.” Genji said softly, “Moira’s just below me, using her purple orbs to kill the fish in the tanks along the wall, I don’t think I should move just yet.” Junkrat agreed, also was kinda freaked out by how fucked up this woman was. Killing fish just for the fun of it? If you weren’t eating it and it wasn’t doing anything wrong to you, then why bother? It wasn’t like it was a bot or a suit, who would screw you over the moment your back was turned, it was a fucking fish. Stuck in a tank. It could only hurt you if you were dumb enough to put a part of yourself in the tank and if you were pissing it off. So this woman was instead just enjoying the many innocent deaths she caused because she could.

Satya informed him that this woman was some head of Genetics at some fancy pantsy city of geniuses… And _he_ was the internationally wanted criminal in the building.

“I’m on my way, loves.” Lena whispered, “Reapers checking out the bunnies, he seems to loike the black one that the shop keep warned us not to pick up.” She informed them.

Before he could comment on that, he caught a blue and orange flash and Lena quietly snuck into the Groomers to join them, a fish net stuck in the pocket of her orange hoodie.

“So, what do you want to know?” she asked him. He explained what he’d need and she nodded, “I remember there bein’ more rocks ‘n plants back there than glass, but I can double check. As fer the distance thing, Genji’s better with that then I am, but I’ll give it a go.” After chatting a bit more, she exited the room and quickly dashed off down an aisle and out of sight.

“We’re done with the balloons.” Lúcio reported as he motioned to the stack they had made, Molly walking over and holding one up for his inspection. He carefully took it from her and bounced it in his hand, “Perfect.” He said, before looking to Lúcio, “Match each of these blokes ‘n sheilas ta an animal ‘n we’ll tell ya which way they’ll need ta go ta get out of ‘ere in a tick.” Lúcio and Molly nodded before going over towards the others, the headset beeping, letting him know that Lena had some news for him, “Yup, plants ‘n rocks, ‘n the beam is the roight distance away.” She confirmed.

“Alroight, come on back with Genji as soon as ya can, we’re gonna go over th’ basics of th’ plan one more toime before we head out.” Junkrat said, feeling a bit pleased to be in control of a plan for once… As well as a bit nervous... Normally when he’d had a plan, it would usually only call for two people, usually him and Hog, risking their butts and he was fine with that, they both could usually handle the risks involved with little trouble and often had enough supplies to handle any unpleasant surprises.

But today?

Today he was responsible for lots of people, many of whom he was close with. Most of them were unarmed or had little to defend themselves with and he had very little supplies to help combat any problems that might pop up while they did this. And unlike Hog, who was practially indestructible, he was a bit worried if some of them would get out unscathed or not with this many odds (i.e the soul sucking witch and the fucking undead phantom in the building with them) stacked against them.

Especially concerning Molly.

She was seven years old, had no combat training (as far as he knew) and while the orbs didn’t effect her, the robed psycho was specifically after her, so it didn’t matter. As long as the orbs effected anyone who was supposed to protect her, she could snatch her up and neither Junker would ever see her again. And he probably wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he let his best mate or his little niece down like that.

“Okay!” Lena agreed, calling him out of his concerns.

“On my way.” Genji confirmed, “And we better hurry, she’s already killed half the fish here and is starting to write stuff down in a notebook she pulled from her pocket, we might be next on her testing list if we don’t get out of here soon.”

“What is wrong with this sheila?” Rat blurted, disgusted.

“Don’t know and don’t want to know.” Genji informed him. Rat finally removed the headset, noticing the looks he got from the two women standing beside him, “Th’ witch is testin’ ‘er orbs on th’ fish fer shites ‘n giggles, so far there ain’ been any survivors.” He explained, watching as their faces momentarily morphed into ones of horror before shifting them into hard expressions of determination, “Then we should get out of here soon.” Zarya declared. The two builders nodded in agreement before Genji and Lena arrived at the door, Mei opening it and ushering them inside, where everyone gathered around him, making him feel a bit uneasy, he sucked in a breath and began to speak.

“Okay,” he said, “First, Genji ‘n Lena are our eyes ‘n ears around th’ place, they’ll let us know where th’ freaks of th’ hour are ‘n keep th’ orbs off yer backs.” He then pointed to various places on the map where Hana, Lúcio, Mei, Zarya, Sayta, Mercy and he would be and handed out extra headsets the employees had pulled out for them earlier from a drawer to them. Telling them to inform the others where they were headed and if someone was following them and if they needed help. He probably didn’t need to tell them that, but he was in charge here and saying that made him feel a bit more confident while ordering the others around.

“Brigitte, Emily, Molly ‘n Bob will lead th’ others out through th’ front door…” he recited only for his little pre-mission briefing to be interrupted.

“No!” Molly said sternly, scowling up at him, “Me ‘n Bob ain’ leavin’ ya behind! Hog told me ta keep ya out of trouble!” she reminded him, then she winced and rubbed at her temples.

“We’re all in trouble ‘ere, Molls.” He countered, “’N you said no promises!”

“I didn’ mean it, though!” she cried, upset as she continued to stroke her head with her tiny fingers, “’N it’s my fault they’re even ‘ere! I wanna help stop ‘um!” She looked up at him with wide, violet eyes, tears threatening to fall, “_Please_, Rat,” she pleaded softly, “I jus’ wanna help…”

He struggled for a moment or two, silently fighting the effect of her tearful expression with the knowledge that if Hog ever found out about him letting her stay in a dangerous place like this, he was as good as dead…

“They’re after me anyways,” she added, as if reading his thoughts as she stopped stroking the sides of her head, “How do we know if they don’ have someone outsoide, ready ta snag me as soon as I walk out th’ door?” He started stroking his chin thoughtfully, she had a point there…

The small scale in his head teetered for another moment before it finally tilted in Molly’s favor and he groaned.

Roadie was going to kill him for this.

“Foine.” He sighed, “But you are stayin’ with me th’ whole toime ‘n Bob is goin’ with th’ others, they need all th’ help they can get keepin’ th’ other animals calm.” He said firmly. Molly stiffened, looking to her very loyal (since she only got him in the wee hours of that very morning) dog, a bit upset. But Bob, that wonderful mutt, walked over to Emily and Brigitte and looked up at his little mistress and Rat with a determined look in his eye.

Okay, he was calling it right now, he and Genji had totally gotten Molly the best dog ever.

Molly walked over and gave him a hug and murmured for him to be good, earning herself a few doggie kisses while the others took that is their cue to get ready, Lena and Genji leaving after promising Mercy that they’d be careful (and Lena getting a smooch from her girlfriend). Junkrat went about double checking his supplies as well as their meager map and quietly muttering to himself as he worked. He noticed Satya making something out of the corner of his eye before silently scolding himself for losing focus, they were all riding on his plan and his explosives to get them all out of this safely. It was his fault that they were even here right now (The pet shop_ had_ been his idea, after all.), and he was not going to fuck all of this up because of his crush on a sheila who…

He stopped what he was doing and stared at the object forming into reality on the floor beside her.

‘A sheila who I’d love ta give a good peshin’ roight now.’ He thought with a growing smile and a lick of his lips.

What sat on the floor was a prototype Sheild Generator, one with several adjustments he had suggested months ago when they first brough Molly home to Gibraltar. She caught his gleeful gaze and gave him a cool smile back, “I suppose this is a good time as any to try it out.” She said, “Considering our circumstances, I believe that any shielding, even one from a mere prototype like this, will be better than nothing.”

“Bloody oath, with ya on tha’.” He agreed with a laugh, “Moight not even cark it if Roadie foinds out I let Molly help us pick a foight with these fuckwits.”

She gave him a sympathetic look, “If it makes you feel any better, I doubt she would have left with the others even if you hadn’t let her stay to help, which would have put her in far more danger since we wouldn’t know she was still inside the building. So it is probably for the best that you told her to stay with you while we do this.” She told him.

He sighed bitterly at that and nodded. She was probably right about Molly staying behind anyways with Bob if he had had denied her request, it didn’t make him feel any better about any of this, but both she and Molly had good points and he felt it was better not that he didn’t fight the little girl on it anyways. Best to just get it over with and deal with whatever beating Hog had in store for him when they all got out of there.

Satya looked at him, concerned until he gave her a smile and a wary laugh, “Moind tellin’ Hog tha’ ‘fore he gets ‘is hands on me? Loike bein’ in as much as one piece as ‘m now, thanks.” She gave him a small smile back, “I doubt it will be needed, he wouldn’t leave her to you if he didn’t trust you.”

“He also wouldn’ of told Molls ta keep me outta trouble if he didn’ know me.” He joked. Satya didn’t seem to think that was funny and walked over to him and jabbed at his chest with a flesh finger, something she didn’t really do since he was often covered in soot and grime (hell, touching him was often something she actively avoided due to his usual filthy state of being), so he knew she meant business, “Jamison Fawkes, I may not know you as well as Roadhog does, but I know you are no fool. You are incredibly intelligent and you are a good friend who does his best to make the people around him happy and safe, even at his own expense and if I hear you suggest otherwise again, I will _not_ let you off so easily. Do you understand me?”

Hooley Dooley, he fucking loved this woman.

He nodded, his face burning as she removed her finger, only then realizing what she had just subjected herself to as she looked at the dirt smudged on the digit. He grabbed a clean towel from a nearby table and handed it to her, “’Ere.”

“Thank you.” She said, carefully wiping the grime off of her hand, he could only nod in reply before going back to work, a tiny victory party throbbing in his chest at her anger at his self inflicted insult as she went back to her generator.

He watched her fiddle with it a bit out of the corner of his eye. Smiling as he watched as what looked like blue outlines suddenly appeared on every man and beast in the room, “I’ve never used this to shield animals, so I’d recommend not taking any risks.” She informed the others, who nodded before the headset buzzed, Zarya picked it up, “They have found them. We are to get into position.”

Junkrat picked up his things with a sharp breath, ‘set everythin’ up, wait fer th’ signal ‘n do what ya do best.’ He reminded himself, ‘jus’ loike any other job.’

But it wasn’t like any other job.

He never had to keep a child out of harm’s way on any other job. He felt Molly tug at his trousers, giving him a hopeful smile, her eyes barely showing the fear and uncertainy he knew was stewing in his own gut as well. He looked down at her, giving her a broad, impish smile, hiding any sign of doubt or worry behind it, “Ya ready ta go?” he asked her.

“Not really.” She admitted, her grip on her piggy bank tightening, “But ‘m gonna anyways.” He lifted her up onto his shoulders, making her let out a surprised laugh that made him actually feel a little better, knowing that they were both a little uneasy about this. “I’ll take it.” he laughed as he reached for the door, “Now come on,” he purred eagerly, “Yer Uncle Rat’s gonna teach ya how ta rig up a surprise!”


	22. Daddy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dadhog to the rescue

Roadhog was barely a half a mile from the petshop when he felt a powerful rumble beneath the tires of his motorcycle, a bit of relief flooding through his system as he began slowing to a stop through a few lights.

“Was that…?” McCree shouted at the top of his lungs to him.

“Rat.” He confirmed, a smile curling up his hidden cheeks.

His lanky pal was okay. Or at least okay enough to press a trigger. And since he was okay enough to set off a blast that powerful, that meant that Molly was safe, since Rat wouldn’t let anyone lay so much as a finger on her without blowing them straight to hell if he feared that they’d harm her.

They finally stopped as close as they could get to the shop, since the exterior surrounded by flashing police cars… but there were no people in plain sight by those cars. But there was a familiar fanatical laugh along with another familiar giggle, “Wait ‘til Hog hears ‘bout this!” Junkrat cackled.

“Ya think tha’ Reaper bloke’ll figure out tha’ th’ last one was filled with Bob’s piss ‘n not water?” Molly chuckled.

“YOU BOTH ARE ON MY LIST FOR LIFE!!” An angry man howled.

“’E does now!” Junkrat laughed.

Well, they were both laughing and in trouble, so that was normal. He could at least take some comfort out of that. He’d take more comfort out of that if they weren’t in trouble with an undead gunman, but they sounded as if they had the upper hand, so he’d save them and then scold them both later.

That comfort was ripped out from under him when he then heard something whizz by, glass shattering, a hissed out swear word and his little girl’s scream;

“**_RAT!!_**”

_No. _

_No…_

“Get down!” McCree shouted as another shot exploded by his head, the cowboy pulling out his gun and firing up at the top of a nearby building, a feminine hiss audible from where they stood, echoing through the empty street.

_Tha’ fuckin’ Slagger…_

“_Rat! Get up, Rat! Get up!_ _He’s comin’!_” He heard Molly cry from inside, he turned to see his little girl glancing around the side of an aisle, holding her piggy bank close to her chest and shaking violently, her hands and knees scraped up, most likely from a fall to the floor. The lanky blonde grimaced on the floor with his flesh hand on his side, sucking in air as if in pain as blood began to trickle between his fingers, “_Guys! Help! Rat’s been shot ‘n Reaper’s comin_!” she shrieked.

Hog heard a growl from the cars and spotted Bob’s head peaking out from behind one of them, Emily’s voice softly calling him back, fear thick in her voice. Bob didn’t step away or forward, he simply scanned the area until he saw him and the dog’s expression went from defensive to pleased, the sound of his ragged tail thumping against the tire of the cop car as it wagged.

Well, that explained where the others were.

“McCree.” He grumbled, the cowboy glancing and following his line of sight to see, “Well, I never thought I’d say this, but, I’m so happy to see that mangled mutt!” he said with a laugh as he dashed over, his gun still aimed at the roof where Widowmaker still was… if she knew what was good for her, that fucking c-

More gunshots from inside and Molly screamed again, glass shattering the windows by the two of them.

With his height, Hog could see Reaper standing over his little girl, who was doing her best to be brave as she held the ass of her piggy bank up at the masked freak, but her trembling figure and the tears that were streaming down her face weren’t really helping her seem that way, “L-leave us alone!” she stammered, holding up her pig, “D-don’ make m-me use this. I-I already sh-shot ya once, I can d-do it again!”

“Oh really?” the rough voice purred, “Because I think that one shot was all that little piggy had in it.” Molly pulled at the plug, panicked, her trembling becoming more violent when nothing happened.

Just like he predicted.

Hog snarled and pulled his gun out of its holster, he didn’t have much ammo, just what he had left over from the night before, but it was enough to wipe that freak show off the face of the Earth like the apocalypse he was.

Molly tried again and again, but still, nothing. The phantom chuckled at her struggle, “You don’t even know what you’re doing, do you?” he taunted. Molly said nothing, apparently deciding to give it one more try, closing her eyes and pulling at the plug at the same time he fired at the monster that hung over his charges like a vulture would over a dying animal.

Reaper was launched backwards into the wall with a cry with his shot, the sound of glass shattering filling the air as Molly opened her eyes, surprised before quickly turning around to focus on Junkrat, who now had a decent sized puddle of blood beheath him as the others finally seemed to reach them.

Mercy and Symmetra looking horrified at the thin Junker’s condition while he turned towards the door (since he knew it would be harder for him to go through the window with his size.) “You BASTARD!” Pipsqueak shouted at Reaper.

“HOG!” McCree cried, catching his attention as he felt something whizz past his ear, one of the straps of his mask suddenly feeling loose as the broken strap fell uselessly towards his neck, more shrieks coming from inside.

“Widowmaker! Get down!” Lena cried.

“Shit! I thought you and Rat broke her gun!” Lúcio shouted.

“We _did_!” Genji assured him.

“She probably has a spare!” Mei reasoned.

“He is bleeding badly and it looks as if it hit something important!” Zarya announced, horrified.

“We need to move him!” Satya said.

“He’s bleeding out!” Mercy reported, “Zarya, help me put pressure on the wound! Lúcio, get me a first aid kit, stat! Satya, I need a stretcher! Hana, Lena, Genji keep your weapons on Reaper, we need to make sure he doesn’t make a move. Molly, come here, we need to move!”

Molly didn’t reply, she only managed to let out shuttering breaths and sobs.

“Molly!” Mercy shouted.

That was all he needed to hear to snap him out of it.

“BITCH!” McCree shouted at the sky as he took a few more shots at her, receiving weird noises back, most likely French swears, but Hog didn’t care. He would slaughter her later, he had to focus on what really mattered right now;

Getting his fellow Junkers out of there alive.

He got inside and ran over to them, Mei and Genji seemed to be the only ones who noticed that he was now inside with them, the expressions on their faces were ones of relief that they had help. The others were either focused on helping Rat or hindering Reaper, who was slowly recovering from the wound he had inflicted as a woman’s laugh sounded from further down the aisle Rat and Molly had come from.

“It’s eerily similar to what happened to 010, isn’t it M011?” the woman cackled as she limped over to them, covered in burns, blood and soot, yellow orbs hovering around her and seemed to be somehow healing her wounds similarly to how Mercy’s staff would, “He was shot right in front of you too and you couldn’t do a thing to help him…”

Molly’s shaking became worse as she looked at her blood soaked hands, “stop it…” she murmured.

“Little number 010, always trying to keep up with you, it was natural, of course, you two were always compared to one another since you two were born just one day apart and you two had the same powers, only you were a Monster class and he was, well, a failure. So when you showed off just how clever you were, of course he’d want to do the same to prove himself to be just as valuable as you.” The woman emerged, wearing a dark colored robe and… did she have a metal square around her eye?

Roadhog brushed the weird little fashion choice of this woman’s out of his mind, he could make fun of it later when she was dead.

But before he could take the shot, several purple orbs shot out of and he watched as Hana, Mei, Zarya, Symmetra and Mercy seemed to slump over, weakened by whatever these were, Lúcio running up to them with the kit and suddenly falling over, moaning, “Not again!”

This wasn’t good! Rat’s breathing was becoming more shallow and his eyes were starting to droop.

“Don’t you dare close your eyes, Jamison!” Symmetra snapped. Hog let that sink a moment before deciding that he’d ask Rat about it later when he didn’t have a bloody hole in him. Lena and Genji pulled out what looked like those little nets they used on fish only for them to be shot out of their hands by Reaper as the woman continued, “But the difference between the two of you wasn’t just the level of your powers, but of your intellect. You were smarter than him, he knew that and he still tried to do the same thing you did and got himself shot.”

He could see the other’s mouths moving, he could see Genji and Lena pulling their weapons only for Reaper to aim his at Rat. He could see Mercy, Lúcio and Zarya struggle to keep working to keep Rat alive, despite their sudden weakness and pain. He saw Symmetra forcing herself to continue making hardlight bandages for his friend as she struggled to breathe. He saw Mei and Hana struggling to hold guns (Mei had apparently borrowed one of Lena’s) on Reaper and the witch. He could see all of that but he was more focused on his child, who was starting to cry as she stared at her bloody hands and looked at Junkrat guiltily and mouthed something that made his chest ache;

“’M sorry, Jamie… ‘M _so_ sorry… Please don’ die loike ‘im_, please_…”

Roadhog felt a fiery fury burn in his belly. He’d seen a fucking ‘nough.

He walked towards them and took a shot at the bitch making his daughter cry, only for Reaper to pull her out of the way and shoot back. He didn’t bother dodging, it wasn’t like a man as large as he was could even do so in such a narrow space with his friends slouched on the floor like they were, he felt a slight sting on his left shoulder, but didn’t even flinch, he just walked towards them, firing between each spoken word.

“_Shut_.” **Bang**.

“_Th’ fuck_.” **_Bang_**.

“_Up_.” **_Bang_**.

Reaper became see through, but he still had to shove his freaky girlfriend out of the way, and he wasn’t looking all that good as Lena and Genji took over for him by shooting at him and flinging shuriken at him. Rat looked up at him and let out a weak laugh, “’Bout toime ya showed up, ya drongo, what kept ya?”

Hog looked down at him, smirking despite the bad situation they were in, “Traffic.” He replied.

“Liar!” Rat accused with a snicker before wincing from his wounds.

“Don’ talk, Fawkes. You’ll make it worse.” Hog instructed.

“Yer jus’ sayin’ tha’ to shut me up.” Rat smiled, blood trickling from between his teeth down the side of his mouth.

“Yeah, I am.” Hog chuckled, before turning around to focus on his little girl, who was still tearing up at the blood on her hands. He ruffled Molly’s hair, “You did good, Molly. Let yer old man handle it now, alroight?” Molly’s body stiffened when he called himself that, not that he could blame her, to be honest, he had no idea where that even came from himself, but she began shaking again as she nodded, sniffling as she whispered back, “Okay Daddy.”

_Daddy_.

She had called him _Daddy_. He felt a surge of joy flow through his system.

If the circumstances were different, he’d be giving her a tight hug and spinning her around the room until she was laughing so hard that tears of glee would be streaming down her cheeks instead of ones of fear and dread.

But there was no time for that right now (maybe later, but not now), right now, _Daddy_ had to take care of business.

He glared at the floating orbs and flicked one away with a fingernail, “Th’ fuck are these?” The time traveler and the cyborg ninja quickly took a break from firing and grabbed their nets and began scooping up the orbs before tying them off and flinging them across the store, the others seeming to recover quickly after that, Mei (who had borrowed one of Lena’s guns) and Hana quickly getting up and standing guard over Reaper while he turned to where the woman sat, shocked and shaking and towered over her, her burns and cuts nearly completely healed.

He took his time flicking her orbs away, he wanted her to be well enough to feel the pain he planned to inflict without her simply skipping over it by passing out or healing too quickly for her to suffer much from it. He wanted her to remember evey second of her incoming agony, so he made sure to take his sweet time flicking them away, one by one the orbs were sent flying away towards the ceiling or towards the tanks of surviving and frighten animals in the tanks, the animals relaxing once the yellow orbs passed them. Once the orbs were out of the way and the woman was mostly okay, he finally decided that it was time for some fucking payback.

“Let me tell you somethin’.” He growled before shooting her left leg, making her cry out in pain, “Th’ bloke who pulled th’ trigger is th’ one who killed tha’ kid. Jus’ loike how ‘m th’ bloke who jus’ shot ya in th’ leg. I pulled th’ trigger, I did th’ damage. She only tried ta save tha’ kid, she didn’ do nothin’ wrong.” He stomped closer to her, the woman’s eyes wide as she tried to crawl away backwards from him, “’N ‘nother thing.” He shot her other leg, making her scream with pain, “My kid’s name is _Molly_. Not M011. You call ‘er tha’ or a monster again ‘n _I’ll show you what a real monster is loike_.” He threatened, pressing the barrel of his gun against the woman’s forehead. After watching her squirm for a moment, he smacked her hard in the face with his gun, blood splurting from her nose as she fell to the ground, yellow orbs forming in one hand before he stomped on it, smiling a bit as he heard a satisfying cracking under his boot, making her cry out again.

He turned his back on her and walked back to the others, he could have sworn he heard her murmur something as he walked back to the others, who now had Junkrat on a stretcher and a hard light patch over his wounds, Mercy shouting orders while Zarya and Genji carefully lifted the stretcher and carried him towards the door to the flashing lights of the ambulances outside, Morrison and the rest of the gang outside waiting for them. Rat winced a bit before letting out a laugh, “Half yer luck, mate!” He congratulated.

“Ta.” He replied with a smile before picking Molly up with his good arm, his grin growing as she snuggled closer, “You said I did good, but Rat still got shot.” Molly sniffled.

“Yeah, well, loike Rat said before, ‘Snipers are a bunch of dipsticks, ‘cept fer Ana, she’s a true cobber.’” He quoted, Molly nodded in agreement before pausing and opening her mouth to ask about Hanzo only for the officers and their co-workers outside to stiffen before quickly taking cover where they could, “DOOMFIST!” someone yelled. Zarya and Genji quickly pulled Rat’s stretcher away from the door and Mercy instructed them to take him to the Groomers, Lúcio running ahead with the first aid kit while Lena, Hana and Mei kept their guns on the moaning Reaper who they filled with bullets while Hog took his sweet time harming the witch. Symmetra quickly wove a pair of handcuffs and cuffed the wounded woman to a heavy metal shelving unit covered in broken glass bowls before going to join the others to help Junkrat.

Roadhog groaned in annoyance at the sound of the name Doomfist. _Great_, of course he’d be here too, they couldn’t just go home and tend to Rat’s wounds in Mercy’s nice infirmary. Nope, now they had to deal with this shit too.

“Doomfist?” Molly repeated, confused, “What’s tha’?”

“The Doomfist is a powerful gauntlet.” Mei explained, “But in this case, they are talking about a person who calls himself Doomfist, he’s the head of Talon.”

“More Talon?” Molly whined, “Why can’t they jus’ bugger off?” Hog couldn’t agree more, he was so done with Talon today. So. Fucking. DONE.

A deep voice called out to the people as he finally came into view from the window, “I am here to collect what is ours.”

‘Oh, come off it already.’ Roadie thought, but before he could shout that at him, Molly rubbed at her head for a moment before scowling and holding out her hand, pouting in concentration as one of the wailing police cars started to tremble and rise up off the ground.

The cops, their friends, their enemies, and all the innocent bystanders peeking through the windows of the nearby shops watched in awe as the car floated towards the well-toned dark-skinned man.

“GO _AWAY_!” Molly shouted as the car swung at him like a bat, Doomfist held out his gauntlet and a loud crashing sound filled the air as it dented the metal and glass of the car, stray shards barely scratching the man’s skin, but not enough to draw blood. The car moved away and rose up enough for Hog to get a good look at the car, revealing the dent Doomfist had left in it’s frame before it tipped backwards until the car was standing at a perfect ninety degree angle from the ground as it hovered in the air before the car suddenly slammed down towards Doomfist, “_GO AWAY_, _GO AWAY_, **_GO AWAY!!!_**” Molly screamed, moving her arm up and down as if she was holding an imaginary hammer and calling for order in a courtroom. The car smashing down on the man over and over again, the sirens still shrieking and Doomfist’s gauntlet taking the brunt of the blows, the ground cracking beheath the strain of Molly’s attack against the frightening leader and the man struggling to take the fast paced and powerful blows.

Finally after what was probably only about ten seconds of hammering, Hog felt something warm the hand he was using to hold up his little girl and looked at Molly to see she had a nosebleed and she was wincing a bit as she flung her arm up and down, determined to squash the leader of the group who had completely ruined her second day out in town.

“Molly.” He said, his voice firm, but gentle, “Drop it.” The car rose a few more feet until it was hovering exactly over Doomfist before gravity suddenly took effect again and the man leapt out of the way to avoid the dented remains of the car as it crashed into the ground, the siren letting out one last pitful high pitched ‘woooo’ before finally dying out.

“Loike tha’, Da’?” she asked him, sounding a bit tired. He bounced her a bit in his arm and chuckled, “Yeah, jus’ loike tha’, love, jus’ loike tha’.”


	23. It's complicated

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mercy's edging closer to realizing a few things about her feelings and Symmetra finally has hers figured out, but it's complicated.

Angela couldn’t tell you how the four higher ups of Talon got away from both the police and able bodied members of Overwatch (although the woman Junkrat identified as ‘Sombra’ definitely came to mind), but she could tell you that it was a wonder that the lanky Junker survived the shot Widowmaker launched into his abdomen. He had nearly died while Molly had apparently tried to play ‘Whack-a-Mole’ with Doomfist as the mole and a police car as a hammer, but luckily they managed to restart his heart with a defibrillator Satya had quickly made up and the EMT’s luckily had some blood packs (which wasn’t as common as it should be, unfortunately) and more supplies than the not so well stocked first aid kit the Groomer area had (which made her a little concerned for the employees here) to help further their ability to keep him alive.

They were even kind enough to take him and her back up to their base for his continued care and treatment (which she knew was a big deal).

After that, she quickly performed surgery, removed the bullet, fixed what it had torn through on it’s way through Junkrat’s abdomen and sewed him back up while Roadhog brought in a tired, pouting Molly and a yawning Bob into the room. The little girl wrapped in what looked like… was that McCree’s poncho?

Upon noticing her staring at it, he decided to explain.

“’E put it on ‘er before we left. Was afraid I’d go as fast on th’ way back as I did gettin’ there ‘n didn’t want ‘er getting cold from th’ wind.” He said.

“That certainly was nice of him.” She commented while she carefully removed Junkrat’s metal arm and peg leg (just in case he tried to escape before she managed to make sure he was okay to leave just yet, it had happened before). He nodded in agreement as he walked past her and gently placed the child onto the bed next to Junkrat’s and carefully tucked her in, her eyes closing as she snuggled into the soft mattress.

“… Guess Rat’s gonna be okay?” he asked softly.

“I believe so, I’ll need to check his condition regularly for the next day or two, and it will take time for him to be back to his normal levels, but he should be well enough to join in the celebration for Ana’s birthday next week.” She informed him.

He let out a sigh of relief, “Thank Christ.” She chuckled at his reaction, pleased to see the side of him she knew best once more, because, while she knew that ‘Dr.’ O’Deorain absolutely deserved the pain he provided, it had been a firm reminder of the man Roadhog was known to be;

One with no problem crushing any and all he saw fit without hesitation or remorse.

Not that she couldn’t help but feel catharsis at the sight of the woman experiencing what she had put so many others through while he basically told her to leave his daughter alone or else.

And, she had to admit, she was actually a little envious that she didn’t get to hit her too. She’d be lying if she said it wasn’t a tempting thought after suffering through the woman’s awful purple orbs that Winston was now studying in his lab. (Minus Mei, which normally wouldn’t be heard of with something as big as samples of a special weapon of a Leading Talon Agent, but she told him that she’d been around those things enough for one day, thank you and left the Gorilla to study it alone.)

Roadhog lifted Bob so he could curl up beside her on the bed and slipped him under the covers beside his little mistress, the two quickly curling around each other and snuggling close before the pup started snoozing with her.

And, while normally, the thought of an animal in her pristine medibay would ruffle her feathers enough to insure that it would never happen, Angela was unable to stop the large smile that curled up her cheeks at the sweet sight and decided to simply let it go, just this once, “It’s nice to see them sleeping so soundly.” She said softly.

“Yeah, well, I knew Molly would pass out pretty quick, but didn’ figure Bob would be knackered too.”

“Why would you think Molly would fall asleep so quickly?” she asked.

“’Cause she was so tired after what happened tha’ she zonked out as soon as I got ‘er ‘n Bob in th’ sidecar, tha’s when th’ cowboy tucked ‘er in with his…” he paused as he held up the red cloth in his hands, uncertain as to what it was now that he saw it without it hanging over McCree’s frame or wrapped around his little girl, “Dress?” he guessed.

“Poncho!” she laughed. He held it up, squinting at it before shrugging and doing his best to fold it with his huge fingers before placing on the little side table beside the bed before looking at the happy duo snoozing contently on the bed, “She… she’ll be okay too, roight?” he asked, most likely worried that he’d have to wait here for both his best friend and kid to wake up.

“I believe she will be, but I’ll do a quick brain scan while you take the bed over there.” She promised, pointing to the bed next to Molly and Bob’s. He seemed a bit surprised until she motioned to his shoulder wound. “I plan to address to _that_ as well.” He moved his massive finger up into the air, as if to argue, only for her to say, “Don’t worry, you can keep your pants on this time.”

She giggled as she watched his baffled reaction, wishing she could see more than just what little of his reddened face she could see via the broken strap of his mask.

He stood there silently for a moment before sighing and walking over to the bed, defeated.

This man could take on two tough as nails Talon agents on his own as well as a shot to the shoulder without flinching and he literally just gave in to her demand with only a sigh.

She had to bite back a giggle fit as she scanned little Molly’s head and was happy to see that she was sleeping soundly with no issues. She’d probably do another one in the morning just to be sure, but as for now, the child got a pass and she then began inspecting Roadhog’s bullet wound.

After she did a through inspection, she knocked him out with another pain med/sleeping med combo and removed the bullet from his shoulder. Making it, shockingly enough, her third surgery of the day, and, even though she promised him that she would let him keep his pants on this time, she made a note on his file to check his backside to make sure that her work there was still alright when he woke up later on.

She also made a note to make sure she did this before Junkrat got up so he wouldn’t make jokes about it and risk his health further due to Roadhog actually being able to throttle him this time.

Once she finished filling out the paperwork for all three junkers, she felt seriously relieved that Ana and Lúcio had taken care of the other’s injuries and wrote up those reports for her and had Athena add it to her files, because she doubted she could do all of the work she had to on the three Aussies _and_ all the little stuff for the others _and _all of the paper work for doing those small things without passing out onto the last bed she had open.

She happily removed her bloody scrubs and tossed them into the laundry basket with a soft, yet satisfying ‘thump’. With that finished, she took a seat in her chair and leaned backwards, letting out a long sigh.

Today had been another rather long day and she was glad that the worst of it was finally over… Not that this fact stopped her from playing the events of the day over and over in her head.

“What an amazing specimen…” She remembered ‘Dr.’ Moira O’Deorain murmuring after Roadhog shot both her legs and crushed her hand before walking back to check on Junkrat and Molly.

Angela couldn’t tell why, but the words that had came out of that mad woman’s mouth back then bothered her. And it wasn’t just because Roadhog was a human being, not a test subject…

The words echoed in her head again, the woman’s Irish accent thick with fascination and… was that admiration?

She paused, what did she admire about him at the time? Roadhog had been quite ruthless towards her, but that was because she literally had been loaming over his little charge, who was covered in his best friend’s blood and was crying, as she reminded her of the trauma that made her limit her powers so much in the first place.

But he wasn’t like that without a good reason. Not the man she knew, anyway. Yes, she had seen his file and how he was on the battlefield and how he had acted towards Moira in the shop, the man truly seemed to be one who could wipe out the world without a single care while working…

But she had also seen him giving Junkrat pep talks and advise, how loving and caring he was towards Molly, how gentle he was when he carried an embarrassed Hanzo into her office after he managed to break his leg during training, how docile he was by letting Hana paint his fingernails bright pink with white bunnies on them without a single complaint or effort to stop her and even thanking her when she finished, seeming to like how cute the bunnies looked on his fingers. And, despite how Moira tried to make Molly shut down again by reminding her of her trauma, just by having her ‘Daddy’ by her side, she somehow managed to squeeze out enough power to bash Doomfist with a police car for a bit before dropping it on him at his suggestion.

Yes, Mako ‘Roadhog’ Rutledge was a monster to be up against in a fight, but when he was on your side as a friend?

He was a saint.

When he was on your side in a fight?

He was a God send.

He used his hook not only to bring in victims, but to save co-workers. He often told her to focus on keeping the others healthy despite him taking several bullets for them himself and simply chugging his ‘Hog-Droggen’ (which she’d wish he’d stop doing) and continuing on with fervor. He kept an eye on not just Junkrat (although she could understand why he was often so watchful when it came to him, and it wasn’t just because he was still paying him or how his preferred weapon could be a double edged sword), but the whole team, often carrying the injured over to her, Lúcio, Ana and sometimes even Morrison for help before going back to the fight, which was great when dealing with stubborn ones like Hanzo, McCree or Junkrat. (Guess which one Roadhog brought to them the most?)

But that so called ‘doctor’ knew nothing of these sides of the large man snoring in the bed next to Molly and Bob. So that meant she admired him for being a large, powerful, nearly unstoppable mountain of a Junker, who had no problem causing her so much harm to make sure that she didn’t bother them again for a long time.

And that made Angela angry.

Roadhog deserved to be loved for every part of him, the good and the bad, to have someone who treated him and those he cared about with the same love and care that he gave.

To treat him as an equal.

A _person_. Not a _test subject_. But a _person_. A human being with feelings and needs.

Moira O’Deorain was not loving or caring or gentle, she treated the men she was assigned to keep healthy like guinea pigs, she killed helpless fish just because she was bored, and she made a scared little girl think she was the reason someone she cared about was hurt!

No one deserved that kind of person’s admiration, even if it was one sided.

She continued to fume about that for a while until a knock on her door startled her out of her thoughts.

“Angela, can I come in?” Ana called from outside, “I brought tea.”

The tea wasn’t necessary for her to let her in, but she had to admit that it sounded quite good right about now and opened the door to usher her inside.

She held two mugs of tea in her hands as she walked in and passed one of them to her, “Chamomile.” She informed her, “After the day you’ve had, a calming cup of tea should help soothe the day’s stress away.”

“Danke.” She said softly as they plopped into two seats by her desk, “And thank you for all your help this afternoon, both in handling the police and writing those reports. I’ve had my hands full with Junkrat, Roadhog and Molly, I doubt I’d be feeling well enough to handle the other small wounds the others had obtained while on our little trip to the petshop today.”

“Anytime.” She assured her as she took a sip and relaxed a bit more in her chair, “I must say though, that phone call had made me more than a bit worried.”

It took Angela a second to process what she meant before remembering her phone flying out of Molly’s hand with a bullet in it and let out a groan, “After everything that happened today, I do not think I am in any mood to go phone shopping, or any shopping in general for a while.” Angela finally took a sip of her tea, the warm chamomile was already doing wonders for her stress levels, “Perhaps I can ask Hana to do so in my stead.”

“That sounds like a plan.” Ana said, taking a sip from her own mug, “And how are your patients?”

“Well, Junkrat is doing much better now, I am grateful that the ambulance had blood packs or we would have lost him for sure. It will take him a while before he’s back to his usual energetic self, but knowing him, he’ll probably wake up within a day or two and be begging for others to bring him things to do as soon as possible.” She said wearly, making Ana chuckle.

“It’s good to hear he will make a full recovery.” She said, making Angela smile a bit at that. While Junkrat was one of her more difficult patients, he was also one of the ones who healed very quickly so she only had to deal with his antics in here for short periods of time, something he joked about having to do with all the radiation he and ‘Roadie’ soaked up over the years. She did enjoy the conversations she’d had with him when she’d be done with each session of her Nanobiotics, they were often very fun and interesting and she found it even more interesting and even a bit entertaining when Roadhog and Junkrat went back and forth, their back and forths making her giggle.

“And how are your other patients?” Ana asked.

“Molly and Roadhog seem to be fine. I plan to inspect both of Roadhog’s bullet wounds before he leaves here today and make him come in for another week or so to continue checking them and give him a few more doses of Nano. As for Molly, after what she managed to do today, she got another nosebleed and was thoroughly exhausted, so I gave her a quick brain scan after being brought in by her ‘Daddy’.” She said, smiling at the word.

_Daddy_. Molly had called Roadhog _Daddy_. The man must have been over the moon when he heard her call him that, she only wished she could’ve seen his face when it happened, but she also needed to keep Junkrat alive and the man was stubborn when it came to that mask of his, so she decided to simply wait until Junkrat would tease him and see how he reacted then. It wouldn’t be the same, but it would have to do.

Ana smiled at her, “Yes, Hana was gushing about that as well as something about Moira saying something about Roadhog in a way that, and I quote, ‘Made me feel creeped out for him’.” she said, making air quotes with one hand while she held her tea in the other.

The joy in Angela’s gut was quickly crushed by that unpleasant feeling from earlier, “Yes, she said he was an ‘amazing specimen.’” She recited, whatever she was feeling apparently leaking into her tone despite her best efforts, making Ana’s face shift into a surprised, then a knowing expression.

“You didn’t like it when she said that, I take it?” she asked, her eyes glittering with impish interest, though her tone was even and light.

“I… I did not.” Angela admitted, feeling her cheeks burn a bit when she did so, “I didn’t like her calling him a specimen. I’ve seen what she does to those back when she was in Blackwatch and I know a bit of what they did to Molly back in Hyde, and for her to know as much as she does about her, she probably had a hand in some of what happened to her.” She felt her cheeks become even more warm as she admitted that, “And I certainly did not like the way she had said it.”

“And how was that?” Ana asked, the question sounding innocent enough, but Angela knew her better than that, but since all three Junkers were out like lights and they were the only other ones in there, she figured that there was no harm telling her.

“Like, like she was talking about someone she was interested in, not just as a subject of study, but…” she felt her throat become thick with emotions that she couldn’t think to name at that moment in time as she spat out the word, “_Romantically_.”

“Hmmm…” Ana stroked her chin at her words thoughtfully, before speaking, “I can understand if you were confused or surprised that she suddenly became interested in Roadhog after what happened today, I’d understand if you were even a bit disgusted, Hana herself found her words a bit disturbing and unsettling. But you seem, well, _angry_ about that.”

“I _am_ angry at the thought of her looking at him like that.” She said, surprised at this revelation that came out of her mouth without any thought as more words quickly tumbled out of her mouth, her anger flaring up as she recalled how the so-called doctor had spoken of him earlier, “He may be a dangerous man to anger, but he’s also a good friend and a father. For her to see him only being attractive as someone violent and dangerous is horrible and I don’t think it’s right. Roadhog is my friend. I want him to be happy with someone who cares for him and accepts both his good and bad traits, not just bad. There is far more to him than the man on the wanted posters. And it’s not just about him, it’s about Molly and Junkrat too.” she looked at Ana, who seemed surprised at her mentioning them and decided to elaborate, “If there was someone interested in you romantically and, despite liking you very much, treated Fareeha badly, what would you do?”

“I’d shoot them where they stood.” Ana said without hesitation, “Any parent would…” she paused, surprised at how easily her words alined with Roadhog’s actions before smiling at her own revelation.

“Exactly!” Angela said, pleased that Ana understood where she was coming from, “Molly is his daughter and he looks after Junkrat more like a parent would than a bodyguard, even if he refuses to admit it. But it’s obvious to anyone with half a brain how precious those two are to him. They are family to him in everything but blood and paperwork, he would do anything to keep them safe and happy. Dr…”

No, she would not taint her profession by calling that woman a Doctor, “_Moira_,” She corrected, “treated Molly like a guinea pig for almost her entire life and I’d bet she’d be happy to study Junkrat as if he were an actual lab rat if she had the opportunity. Someone who would easily treat his family’s lives like they meant nothing are not people who deserve to be with him nor should they be.” She said firmly.

Ana nodded in agreement, “All good points, but I have a feeling that there is another reason why you didn’t like her words back then.” she said coolly.

Another reason? Angela frowned down at her tea and took a sip, dismissing how her conversation had led it to cool far more than she would have like it to as she pondered if those reasons she listed to Ana alone were truly all that made her so upset about a few words from a mad scientist.

‘… No.’ She admitted to herself, if she removed the reasons she gave Ana from the equation, there was still something simmering in her gut because of those four words.

She just had no idea what it could be.

Ana seemed to pick up on that and placed a hand on her thigh, “You can figure that reason out in time,” she said, giving her leg a pat before rising from her seat, “Oh, and Jack would like to talk to you, Junkrat, Roadhog and Molly as soon as he can. He wants to know every single detail.”

Angela groaned, “I’ve performed three surgeries today alone and I have three patients to look after, if he’d like to talk to me, he can do so here.”

“Fair enough. I’ll send Jack over to get your side of the story as soon as I can.” Ana agreed. Angela thanked her as she got up and left, the older woman waving before heading up the hall with her mug.

Leaving her and the confusing thoughts and feelings she had been struggling with before she arrived. Angela sighed and sank back into her chair. She could use a distraction right about now…

God must have heard her, because as soon as she thought that, she heard a whining sound from Bob and Molly’s bed. The same sound she’d heard while in the Groomers.

“Bob?” she called, walking over to see the dog was trying to find a way down, his tail wagging when he realized she had noticed that he was awake and his expression melting into what she could only assume was relief when he saw her coming, “What’s wrong, boy?” she asked as she helped him down onto the floor, he dashed over to the door with a speed she had no idea he was capable of with his three stubby legs and began pawing it.

Oh.

It would seem as though _someone_ needed to use the bathroom. Angela smiled and opened the door for him, “You poor thing, you must have been holding it in for ages, haven’t you?” He simply looked up at her, his eyes glistening with gratitude as she chuckled and motioned for him to follow, “Come along, Bob, let’s get you outside to go to the bathroom.” He happily bounded after her as they made their way to the nearest door to the outside. It was quite late, the sun was already setting into the sea, the sky a beautiful canvas of colors as Bob sniffed around the grounds, trying to find the perfect spot to mark his new territory. She’d had no idea that it been that long, then again, she had been quite busy since they arrived back from town.

Her stomach growled and she jumped at the sound, making Bob pause from his sniffing to look over at her, concerned.

“I’m alright.” She assured him, “Just a bit hungry.” This seemed to ease his concern and he went back to his business as Angela pondered when the last time she had eaten was.

She recalled eating something for breakfast, although if you asked her now, she would only be able to tell you that it came from the table of snacks in the common room, making it the only thing she’d consumed today other than the tea Ana had brought her. And now that she thought about it, she’d eaten breakfast late too, due to staying up with Molly to wait for the others and performing surgery on Roadhog’s butt and needing to catch up on her sleep.

Speaking of Roadhog, had he eaten since dinner last night? Hmmm… Molly, Junkrat and Bob’d had breakfast, she knew that for a fact by the leftover crumbs on their clothes this morning and Molly mentioning getting _more_ ham for Bob. And Roadhog had been in her office until he came running after Junkrat, Molly and Bob (for whatever reason) butt naked. She chuckled a bit at the memory of his bashful reaction and retreat before forcing herself to stay on task.

He was by her side until he left for the meeting about Molly, so he hadn’t gotten any breakfast. Which was both sweet that he’d forgo food for his little girl and bad because it meant he had willingly entered a fight while recovering from surgery and without food for at least twelve hours or so. She had cleared him for the meeting, not a shoot out with Reaper and Moira. (Not that it could have been helped, but still…)

She and everyone else who had gone to the petshop today instead of the meeting had also been unable to eat lunch or dinner. They had planned to grab some food in town and bring back some take out for everyone else, but that plan had been cancelled the moment Moira made herself known. And Roadhog had left the briefing early to help them.

So no one (herself included) in her office had eaten in a while.

After Bob had finished his business, she led him to the kitchen, poured him a bowl of dog food and some water into his new bowls and made a pot of roasted flour soup, just like her mother used to. Usually the dish consisted of flour, butter, onion and beef stock, but her mother often put in red wine, gruyere cheese and a little salt. It wasn’t the most filling meal, but considering that they all hadn’t eaten in a while, she figured it was good to give them something light and warm than something heavy that might make them all feel sick due to eating so much so suddenly.

After she finished making it, she put the pot onto a tray along with a few bowls and spoons, and carried to her office, Bob right behind her, his tail wagging now that he had an empty bladder and a full belly.

She had reached the door and was about to attempt to balance the tray in one arm while she opened the door, when she heard voices on the other side. She leaned against the door to get a better idea of what was going on.

“So Rat’s gonna be okay?” Molly asked softly.

“Yeah. ‘E’ll be out fer a day or two, but ‘e’ll be back ta normal soon enough.” Roadhog replied, although it had taken Angela a moment to understand what he was saying due to his voice being softer than usual and the usual muffling by his mask.

“Good.” Molly said with a sigh of relief, “I-I’d never seen ‘im tha’ still ‘fore. I didn’ loike seein’ ‘im loike tha’. All quiet ‘n everythin’, tha’ ain’ loike ‘im at all… Don’ loike how ‘e’s so quiet ‘n still now either.”

“Me niether.” Roadhog agreed, “But if there’s one thing ya ever need ta know ‘bout Rat, is tha’ ya can’ keep ‘im down, not even fer ‘is own good, struth. He’s too stubborn fer tha’.”

The office was silent for a moment and she briefly considered using this time to enter, when she heard sniffling, “C-can I ‘ave a hug?” Molly finally asked.

“’Course you can.” Roadhog said. She heard a few squeaks of the beds and an ‘Up ya go’, meaning that he must have leaned over and scooped her up. Yeah, now would not be a good time to listen in. Bob gave her a funny look as if to ask what the hold up was, and she simply motioned to the door. He then scratched at one of his floppy ears, flipping it over and placed his head near the door too.

Angela heard more sniffling and soft murmurs for a moment before Molly said, “I jus’ ‘membered somethin’.”

“Hm?”

“Tha’ bag attached ta Rat’s arm. I’ve them ‘fore.” She said.

“You have?” Roadhog asked, his tone indicating that he did _not_ like where this was going, but still asked, “Where?”

“Back at Hyde. Sometoimes they’d attach empty baggies ta us ‘n fill ‘um up.” Molly said, “Th’ white coats would always be really happy, sayin’ how they were gonna get more fundin’ ‘n how they were glad that we were made ta all have toype…” she paused as she did her best to recall their exact words, “toype O r-h D negative blood, whatever tha’ means. But those days were noice, ya’d feel toired after they were done fillin’ th’ bag, but we’d get ta sleep more without gettin’ yelled at or losin’ dinner, in fact, we’d get _more_ food ‘n they even gave us juice! I loike juice! It’s cool ‘n sweet ‘n yummy!”

Angela felt her own blood boil as this information sank in.

Type O rh D negative blood was the universal donor blood type. It was the highest in demand due to it’s rarity and how it can be transfused into nearly everyone.

It was bad enough those monsters had made children and put them through hellish tests, hardly fed them, didn’t care if they lived or died as long as they could either make a quick buck or get more data, but to _sell their blood _to give themselves extra revenue to continue their shady shit made he_r **absolutely furious**._

Her desire to stand by and eavesdrop was gone, “Bob, please move away from the door.” She warned. Bob wisely backed away from the door, allowing her to kick it open, “THEY DID WHAT?!?!” She bellowed, making both Molly and Roadhog jump and hug each other tighter, as if frightened by her loud and unusual entrance.

Bob quickly dashed towards them, a bit frightened by her behavior as well as he whined timidly by the foot of Roadhog’s bed.

“T-they gave me juice?” Molly offered through chattering teeth.

“No.” Angela said, her voice venomous and filled with rage, “About your blood. They put it in bags?”

“Y-yeah.”

“How often?”

“I-I dunno. I think it’s on me stick?”

Angela finally realized how frightened Molly was and how defensive Roadhog was in the way he was holding her and finally heard Bob’s frightened whines and sucked in a deep breath, held it for a moment and let it out. She continued to do this for a minute or so before finally speaking in her usual, calm voice, “Athena? Can you please ask Winston send me all of the files related to Molly’s health from her data stick by tomorrow afternoon, please?”

“Certainly Agent Ziegler.” Athena confirmed.

“Thank you, Athena.” Angela said before looking at the two of them, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have scared you all like that.” She acknowledged as she placed the tray she was still holding onto her desk and began scooping a serving into one of the bowls she brought, “I was just not expecting them to use you and your brothers and sisters’ literal blood to line their pockets.”

“They had blood in their pockets?” Molly repeated, confused as Bob began to calm down.

“She means tha’ they took yer blood ‘n sold it fer cash ‘n kept it fer themselves.” Roadhog explained.

“Ohh….” Molly then looked at her, finally noticing the soup, “What’s tha’?”

“Oh, it’s roasted flour soup. It’s light and warm, perfect for when you haven’t eaten in a while.” She explained, happy for the change in subject.

Molly’s stomach growled, making her jump at the sound. Roadhog let out a snort of laughter before his own stomach roared, making Molly giggle, “Your tummy is louder than moine!”

“’Course it is, ‘m bigger than ya.” He said, then paused thoughtfully, “’N now tha’ I think ‘bout it, I did skip breakfast ‘n lunch today…”

Molly scowled, “Tha’s not good!” she scolded, “Angela told me tha’ ya shouldn’ skip meals!” Angela smiled broadly at the little one’s words, who knew, perhaps Molly could help make sure the elder Junkers were more careful from now on.

Most likely not, but it was nice to dream, wasn’t it?

“That’s right, Molly, it’s not good for your body if you skip meals.” She confirmed as she handed her a bowl of soup and a spoon, her smile growing as Molly eagerly dug in, her violet eyes sparkling, “It’s yummy!” she exclaimed happily before going back to shoveling in as fast as she could.

She chuckled as she poured a large bowl for Roadhog and handed it to him, earning a soft ‘Ta’ before she replied, “I’m glad you like it, it’s my mother’s recipe.”

“Yer mum taught you this?” she asked, looking down at the nearly empty bowl thoughtfully for a moment as Roadhog pulled up his mask to take a few sips from his bowl before scooping Bob up from the ground and plopped him onto the bed with them, the pup snuggling by his owner as soon as he could. Molly held out her bowl, where there was only a tiny bit left over.

“Wanna try some, Bob?” she asked. Bob helped himself to the last bit of soup, his tail wagging as he did so. When he finished he gave Molly a couple of doggie kisses in thanks, making her laugh.

“Bob loikes it too!” she said, looking up at Roadhog, “What do you think, Da’?”

Roadhog nearly choked on his soup at the word ‘Da’’ and started coughing.

It would seem as though Roadhog was still getting used to Molly calling him ‘Daddy’ or ‘Da’’. And it was kind of sweet to see how emotional he was at how Molly was finally referring to him as her father, it was also funny seeing how flustered he got when she did call him that, but it was mostly sweet.

Mostly.

“Da’?!” Molly cried, concerned as she gently patted at his massive belly, unable to reach his chest. Angela gently patted him on the back, “He’s alright, Molly, the soup just went down the wrong way.”

“It can do tha’?” She said, confused and concerned.

“Yes, so you should be careful when you eat, alright?” Angela said. Molly nodded as she patted her ‘Da’’s belly again, trying to be comforting as he let out the last few coughs and lifting up his mask to wipe away a tear that she doubted came from him coughing so much.

“Ta.” He managed, sounding a bit embarrassed before finally answering Molly’s question, “It’s good. I loike it too.”

Molly smiled broadly, most likely at the fact that they all liked the same thing, before looking to Angela, who had finished helping herself to a bowl and was taking a sip from her spoon as well, the child suddenly a bit bashful, “Um, can you teach me this so Rat can have some too?” she asked softly.

Her heart warmed at that, although if it was because Molly wanted to learn to make Junkrat feel better when he got up or if it was because, deep down, she found herself enjoying being a Maternal figure in the little girl’s life, she didn’t know.

But what she did know was that it was nice being looked up to and having Molly constantly looking for her approval and asking her questions about the world.

It honestly reminded her of the time she spent with her own mother. She could vividly remember standing on a step stool in the kitchen. Standing next to her mother by the stove when she was probably just a little younger than Molly is now.

She could remember her mother’s soothing voice as she lead her through the recipe for the soup she had just served her two hungry patients sitting with her now...

“Mama, why do I have to know this?” she had asked her all those years ago.

“Because, my Ängeli, no girl from Basel can marry without knowing how to make this soup.” Her mother replied.

“But I am not from Basel.” She had said before pointing to the floor of their warm little home, “I am from here.”

“No, but _I_ am.” Her mother countered with a laugh, “And no daughter of mine will grow up without at least knowing this recipe to pass down to someone else someday!”

Angela looked at the stove and pouted a bit as she performed the next step, “What if I don’t marry or have a child? Then who can I teach this too?” she challenged.

Her mother smiled knowingly at her, “Even if you don’t have a child of your own, if you plan to be a doctor someday, there will probably be at least one child that will be grateful for your kindness and all the loving care you give them.” She stirred the pot with one hand as she gently slid a warm finger to push back a stray hair that had fallen into little Angela’s face, “And I am sure they would be very happy to learn this from you.”

“Why? Why me?” She had asked, happy that her mother would say that, but still confused as to why she was so sure about that, “Why me and not anyone else?”

“Because you are as beautiful, loving, caring and kind as the angels above. That’s why I named you Angela.” Her mother had said with a warm smile on her face.

“Angela?” Molly called, pulling her out of her little flashback, “You okay?”

“Of course, I was just lost in thought for a moment.” She assured her, before quickly changing the topic, “How about I teach you how to make it tomorrow? We can treat everyone here to it for lunch to make sure you know it well enough so you can make it for Junkrat when he wakes up!”

“Okay!” Molly agreed happily.

Hog drained the last of his soup from his bowl when a knock came from the door and Hana and Satya poked their heads into the room, “Uh, how is everyone?” Hana asked cautiously. Which was understandable, Hana had made it a point to become friends with everyone when she arrived and when she saw how the Junkers seemed to be left alone by nearly everyone except Torbjörn and Reinhardt, she quickly decided to befriend them, something that everyone thought wouldn’t happen only to watch in shock and awe as they happily included her in conversations and joked around with her in very little time.

As for Satya, well, putting her affection for Junkrat and her concern about his wounds aside for a moment, the two often spent the most time in the workshop, due to his restless nature and her bouts of insomnia, it probably became a bit of a habit for her to see him in the workshop, the testing grounds, the common room, the kitchen, the garage, and now he wasn’t there at all. Satya was not fond of change and didn’t take to it well, so someone she had become close with suddenly not being where she was used to seeing him probably made her feel even more stressed out than she already was, and Angela really hoped Junkrat felt better soon or she wouldn’t be surprised if the poor woman had a panic attack.

“Molly and Roadhog are awake, Junkrat will most likely be unconscious for another day or two before waking up, but it won’t take long for him to be his usual energetic self.” Angela replied, ushering them in with a hand, “Would you like some soup? I still have plenty left and I brought extra bowls just in case.”

The two entered and accepted the offer, Hana and Molly quickly began chattering away, giving Bob constant affection and rubs while Satya took her bowl and sat down in a chair near Junkrat’s bed, occasionally sipping at the soup as she stared forlornly at him.

Roadhog excused himself as he got up from the bed and walked over to Angela with his bowl, leaning down towards her and mumbling, “She gonna be alroight?” jerking his thumb back towards who he meant by ‘she’.

“She’ll be right as rain as soon as Junkrat wakes up.” Angela assured him as she poured him another serving, “We will probably need to keep an eye on her, though.”

“Hmm.” He said thoughtfully before glancing back at the lonely looking woman by his best friend’s bed and letting out a sigh before walking towards her and sitting on the floor beside her, chatting with her in a soft tone of voice inbetween slurps of his soup. Angela couldn’t hear what they were saying, but Satya seemed to take comfort in whatever he said and even smiled a bit.

“That’s a great idea!” Hana blurted, reverting her attention back on the youngest females in the room.

“What is a great idea?” Angela asked, making the girls and Bob look over to her with wide, excited smiles as Hana explained that, “I was telling Molly about this new game a bunch of my followers recommended that we play together, it’s a game where you and a friend have to run a spa together and keep everything running.”

“After she told me what a spa was, I was thinkin’ maybe tha’s what we can do fer Ana’s birthday, give ‘er a spa day ‘ere!” Molly said, throwing out her arms excitedly.

Angela pondered this for a moment, “What exactly would this ‘spa day’ include?”

“Well, we could do ‘er nails and ‘er hair.” Molly said, “Since make overs are a part of spa trips, roight?” she looked at Hana for confirmation.

“Right! Then there are massages, Zarya knows a thing or two about them, we could give her a mud mask, I think Mei has a few recipes we could try…” Hana recalled.

“Pharah can make ‘er favorite foods!” Molly suggested, getting more and more excited as they brainstormed aloud, “’N, ‘n Lúcio can put on some noice music for ‘er!”

The two got more and more excited with every idea they had as Hana quickly typed up notes on the ideas they liked best onto her phone. Once they had a decent sized list, they borrowed some paper and a pen from Angela and finalized their plans, listed supplies and who they’d need to talk to and chattered on and on until Molly was too tired to continue and fell asleep with her head leaning against Hana’s arm.

“Hog!” Hana whispered, after taking a selfie with the sleeping little girl, “I think it’s your little girl’s bed time!” Roadhog let out a grunt of acknowledgement as he pulled himself to his feet, making sure to say one last nice thing to Satya and thank Angela as he returned the bowl to her before thanking Hana for watching her for a bit before carefully scooping her and Bob up off the bed and placed the dog on the floor, “Come on, Bob, let’s let ya out one last toime ‘fore tuckin’ you two in fer th’ noight.”

Bob’s raggedy tail wagged wildly at the suggestion and the pup happily followed the large man and sleeping child out of the room.

Leaving the three women alone with an unconscious Junkrat.

Angela put her empty bowl on the nearby counter and walked over to Satya, “Satya, Hana and I are going to take the dirty dishes to the kitchen, can you keep an eye on Junkrat for me, please?”

Satya’s face was neutral as she nodded silently, slowly passing her friend her empty bowl.

“Thank you, we’ll be right back.” She promised as she carefully took the bowl and, with Hana’s help, gathered all the dirty dishes and made their way to the kitchen to drop them off for the evening.

“Is _she_ going to be okay?” Hana asked her, “I mean, she freaked out when she heard Molly screaming about him getting shot, and she called him ‘Jamison’ a few times while we were there too.” She paused, pensive, “Why would she call him that anyway?”

“That’s his real first name.” Angela said, then realized how that might seem and quickly pointed out that, “It _was_ on his wanted posters.”

“Yeah, I know. I saw them but, just, since when did he let anyone here call him that?” Hana asked, “I mean, Molly told Lúcio and I that Junkers don’t let just _anyone_ use their real names. Just people they truly trust and care for.”

“He probably figured that after the French kissing incident, he owed her that at the very least.” Angela joked, Hana giggled at that as they piled the dishes into the sink and walked back to her office.

“But seriously, what is their relationship status here?” Hana asked, “I mean, they kind of seem like friends, but they also seem to be _more_ than just friends.”

“I have no idea.” Angela answered honestly.

“Really?” Hana said as they walked to the medibay door, “I would have thought Molly would have told you as soon as she found out...” she paused, “Well, you and Roadhog, anyways.”

“What do you mean?” Angela asked, baffled, “Why would she tell me about that?”

“Because you’re basically her mom and Roadhog’s her dad.” Hana said flatly, as if it were obvious.

Angela stopped moving, shocked as her words echoed in her head.

‘Because you’re basically her mom…’

‘… You’re basically her mom…’

‘…Basically her mom...’

Hana took her sudden stop and silence as a sign that this was not as obvious to Angela as it had been for her and looked back at her, shocked.

“OMG… You seriously didn’t notice that you treat her like she’s your kid too?” she blurted, “Or how Molly actually listens to you when you tell her not to do things or how she’s always happy to see you just like how she is with Roadhog and Junkrat?”

“I…”

“Is that why you looked so pissed when that Moira bitch said that stuff about Roadhog?” Hana asked, the shock gone now that she realized there were more juicy details she could learn here, her smile broad and more than just a bit impish as she prodded with, “Because she was trying to squeeze into your role as Molly’s Mommy? Or because you want Roadhog’s ‘Whole Hog’ all to yourself…”

“No!” She blurted, her face burning as the sight of the ‘Whole Hog’ popped up back into her mind, “It’s because-“

But before she could finish, Satya came rushing out of the room, her hands over her face, what of her face that was left visible was completely red and she ran past them murmuring, “Oh Gods, oh Gods!”

Angela and Hana stood in the hall for a moment before both of them tore inside, Hana reaching Junkrat first, “Well? What’s wrong?!” She asked, reaching for a pair of rubber gloves, ready to address the problem.

“Nothing.” Hana said, her voice relieved before she started laughing and moved out of the way as she pointed to his face, “I mean, his lipstick’s a bit smudged, but all in all, I’m pretty sure he’ll live.” She snickered.

Angela leaned over and saw that she was right. There was a lipstick kiss mark on his cheek, in a shade she recalled Satya wearing when she entered with Hana earlier.

“Looks like that answers my question on their relationship status!” Hana joked.

“Yes.” Angela said, recalling Satya’s fears about Vishkar possibly taking her away and ‘reconditioning her’ as punishment for her growing feelings towards the young man in the bed in front of them, “It’s complicated.”


	24. Not so relaxing day at the spa

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rat is finally up and about to join in on Ana's birthday party and thinks about all the new things he's learned and experienced since waking up, but an unexpected guest comes and spoils the mood.

Junkrat sat beside Ana on the couch, smiling as she admired her left hand, the nails painted to be the colors of her formulas with her index finger painted black with little white ‘z’s painted on them, as a little reminder that this was the finger she used to make lights out happen the non-lethal way. Hana sat on the floor as she worked on her right hand, using the same colors as before, only her right index finger would be white with a black cross hair on it, a reminder that this was her sniping finger and to not get her line of sight unless you wanted to be dead.

He’d drawn up three possible options for her, but he was glad that she picked his favorite and original one. It was simple, easy and it looked pretty good.

“Molly said you came up with the idea to use these colors and images.” Ana purred, obviously pleased with the work he and Hana had done on her fingers, “I have to admit, I was not expecting so many interesting options. You’ve outdone yourself.”

“Yeah, well, it was th’ only present idea Merc would let me do in ‘er office while I was gettin’ fixed up.” He said, a bit embarrassed that he’d only been able to make a few designs for everyone’s nails with Molly and Hana the day before. But then again, he’d had a rough time during his recovery so it was understandable that he didn’t have a lot of time to prepare a proper present.

He had woken up two days after his surgery, feeling sore and stiff. Mercy explained that, due to the damage he’d taken by Widowmaker’s shot, he’d be stuck there for a few more days to fully heal. Junkrat was about as happy to hear that as anyone there who knew him would expect…

Which meant that he was friggin’ pissed at the news.

He was a bit of a fidget, which could be a bit of a problem around here sometimes but he really couldn’t help it, when you grew up in a place like Junkertown, a habit like that tended to help you more than hinder you, people didn’t notice if you were swiping their shit if you were naturally twitchy, you could always be working on another way to keep yourself alive, or designing new ways to defend yourself.

Not being allowed to move as freely as he’d like to be made him more than just a little antsy, if he couldn’t move, anyone could just kill him in his sleep. He knew it was unlikely for that to happen here, but old survival instincts definitely died hard.

The only reason he probably didn’t kick up as much of a fuss as he normally did was because he was tired and kept falling asleep and waking up every once in a while or so.

He felt weak and pained and was kept in one place without anything fun or helpful for him to do and _he did not like it._

He didn’t feel all that much better when Morrison came in to talk to him. After an annoying interrogation and Rat insisting that, no, Symmetra’s shield generator had _not_ failed them. After explaining that his and Molly’s shields were simply worn down by the witch woman’s stupid orbs and there was no way any of them could have known that before hand or done anything about it since he and Molly weren’t really effected by it and so neither of them really even noticed it was there until their shields were completely gone, Morrison finally seemed to stop with the interrogating before he sighed and told him about what they’d discussed in the meeting before having to leave to come help them.

Junkrat soaked in every word, every bit of information, quietly. On the outside, anyways.

On the inside, insults, threats, and plans to slaughter every fucker who hurt his best pal’s little girl and his niece were exploding through his brain at a ludicrous rate.

There were so many ways he could avenge Molly and her siblings…

So many ways he could make Hyde suffer…

So many options to choose from, how was a Junker to decide where he wanted to start, let alone be able to vocalize it just yet?

He managed to ask a few questions every now and then when 76 said something that made the raging hurricane of vengence quiet for a moment enough for him to get a better understanding of something before the storm raged on.

Morrison seemed a bit unnerved when he finished speaking and he’d said nothing for a moment.

“Junkrat?” he called, “Are you still with me?” he waved his hand in front of his face, “I swear, if you’ve zoned out again…” Junkrat gently smacked his hand away with his stump, something he often didn’t like doing (the metal hand was more satisfying to hit people with due to it being harder than his remaining hand) but Mercy had apparently taken it off before his surgery and he hadn’t had a chance to ask for it back yet, so he couldn’t care less at the moment as he explained that, “’M ‘ere, jus’ tryin’ ta figure out how many bombs I’ll havta rig up ta give those Hyde bastards th’ worst day of their loives.”

The old soldier smiled at the thought of the cruel Hyde scientists being blown up for torturing little children, “I’ll let you know when we have more on where they keep the other kids, wouldn’t want them to get hurt.” Rat nodded before 76 gave him an order to get better soon and left.

After that, he’d had many nice visits from the others during the day, starting when Molly came in carefully balancing a big bowl of soup with a small loaf of bread under her arm shortly after Mercy had given him his arm back (she refused to give him his leg back just yet, though, she knew him well enough to know he’d try to leg it if she gave it back too soon), Bob bouncing in happily behind her with Dadhog not too far behind.

“What’s with th’ bowl?” he’d asked as she stopped to keep the contents of the bowl from falling out.

“She figured you’d be hungry.” Roadie replied, Rat’s stomach roaring in agreement and making both men chuckle as Molly finally reached his bed and Roadie handed him the bowl and she passed him the bread, “Reinhardt said it tastes better with bread!” she said cheerfully.

“Noice.” He paused, “Where’s me spoon?”

“Spoon?” she repeated.

“Yeah, have ta drink it otherwise.” He said, quickly gathering from her dismayed expression that this was something she had overlooked.

“I got it.” Hog said, holding it up.

“Ta!” he said, happily accepting it and digging in. Molly watched him nervously, as if uncertain if she had done well or not, her cowlicks wavy and low on her head as she watched from his bedside.

“It’s good,” he said, gently ruffling her hair with his flesh hand while his metal one held the spoon, “Noice work, Molls!” She beamed and began telling him all about Mercy had taught her how to make that soup. Then she told him about how Reinhardt had taken her out fishing yesterday out by the cliffs and how he caught a huge shark that she had named ‘Chompy’ before they let it go back to the ocean. And _then_ she talked about how she and Hana had come up with a fun spa day for Ana’s birthday, and _then_ she talked about the cool sculpture she was making as a present and _then_ how she and Hana had gotten a few of the costumes for everyone on Halloween and got Torbjörn, Reinhardt and Lúcio on board helping them with the rest of them.

He let her go on and on, filling him in on what he’d missed for a little while before Mercy told her that Bob had to use the bathroom. Once Molly had dashed out with Bob, bumping into Hana on the way and the two of them telling him to hang in there while they dashed to the closest door to the outside.

In this time, Mercy checked him out, took his empty bowl and had him sleep for a bit.

Making the last thing he heard was her saying, “All right now Roadhog, he’s asleep again, so you know the drill, pants down, rear up…” Followed by his best friend’s embarrassed groan and his own snickering before finally falling asleep.

More people came as the days went on, Hana and Lúcio set up a TV and one of Hana’s game consoles near his bed and the two of them would team up in racing games against him and Molly. ‘Team Junker’ usually lost, but Molly’s gaming skills had gone up considerably under Pipsqueak’s tutelage, so they didn’t do too badly even with him purposefully crashing into things to blow up (something that they both laughed at every time and didn’t really get bored of, surprisingly enough) and it led to him and Lúcio teasing Hana that if she wasn’t careful that Molly would soon best her master.

“Why would I do tha’? It’s more fun ta play with everyone, not against ‘um.” Molly said, earning herself a hug from Hana as she blurted out how she was ‘SO SWEET, OMG YOU ARE GIVING ME A CAVITY!’

Reinhardt and McCree checked in on him several times to see how he was feeling, bringing food and booze (something Mercy scolded them for), and chatting about Ana’s upcoming party.

Lena and Emily also visited but Lena often would play with the others while Emily scooped up Bob and would chat with Hog, which while he was happy that the big guy was making friends, _he_ was the one hurt here! A little consideration to the guy you came in here to visit in the first place would be nice! (They did sneak him some sweets, so he guessed he could forgive them this time.)

Torbjörn had come in a few times, but Mercy kicked him out for smuggling in bomb parts for him to play with the first time he visited and so they looked over a plan to make Bob a new leg to keep him occupied instead (although they did both bitch about him not being able to build in there), Rat and Torb both chatting about how they made their own limbs and wondering how the other’s prostetics had been made, possible future projects they could try when he got better, etc.

Mei, Zarya, Brigitte and Pharah came in to visit, bringing snacks and telling him how the information he gave them about it effecting Symmetra’s shields really would help them in the long run. Mei telling him they were doing tests on the effectiveness of the shields verses the orbs and hoped that once he felt better, that he and Pharah could help all of them test their shields against explosives and rockets as well to make sure they still could block that after they made them immune to the orbs.

This little bit of news made him look forward to their progress and even made him interested enough to ask them about their progress with the testing whenever they or Winston popped in to see him.

Genji surprisingly came in once with Zenyatta, which made him feel a bit uncomfortable, but Zenyatta didn’t stay for very long, he simply informed him that Molly had started meditating with them while he was ‘out for the count, I believe was how Hanzo had put it’ and informed him that if he ever felt as if he needed it, he was welcome to join them. Junkrat wanted to tell him to piss off… but Molly was right there and Mercy was practically threatening him with nothing but an angry maternalistic aura; ‘Say the words I know you’re thinking of in front of her and I’ll make your time here as unpleasant as I can from now on.’

“Nah, too quiet fer me, thanks though.” He managed through gritted teeth and a smile that threatened to twitch into a grimace nearly the whole time. The bot seemed to be pleased at the use of manners and lack of swearing in his presence, most likely seeing this as a sign of acceptance and forgiveness or some other bullshit reason and left one of his golden orbs behind to ‘aid in the healing process’.

He and Roadhog felt uncomfortable and nearly turned it down, but instead, Hana and Lúcio stopped them with the same thing he’d used when he’d gotten them to kiss… geez, roughly a week ago now (felt like it happened months ago to be honest, with so much happening in such little time); Molly’s wide-eyed and joyful expression.

Bloody oath, he did _not_ see that coming. Probably should have known they’d use it against him some day, but he never figured it would come back to bite him in the ass _this_ soon. Maybe in a year or something, but now? Nope.

So the orb orbited around him for a while, leaking out a golden light that the four younger visitors assured was actually quite soothing and refreshing.

And, he’ll never admit it out loud, but they were actually right, it felt kind of good.

He didn’t feel comfortable thinking that something a bot provided for him was good, so he instead focused on the conversation Genji and Hog had about books they liked and smiled as the two of them promised to swap old favorites later and for Hog to loan him a book that he could trick his brother into reading before the cyborg left.

Even though he appreciated the fact that so many of the group came in to see how he was and to be there for him, Junkrat felt the most at ease when it was just, him, Roadhog, Molly, Hana, Lúcio and Mercy. (Not that he didn’t want Satya to visit him too, but he knew if they did spend time together, he’d probably prefer it just being the two of them spending time together rather than having to share her with the group.)

Hog spent most of his time with him sitting and reading quietly or taking Molly and Bob outside for a bit so the pup could use the bathroom. He’d occasionally ask how he was feeling and whenever it was just Roadie, Hana and Molly, the two girls gave him as much gossip as they could with the mountain of a man commenting on occasion as they jabbered on and on. Because Hana was now completely on board the ‘Junkmetra/Symmrat ship’ and the ‘Mercyhog ship’… making Molly call out, “What’s with everyone with boats?! First yer fans talking about you ‘n Lúcio would a noice couple, then talkin’ ‘bout you two havin’ a boat with cannons ‘n now this?! I don’ get it!!” And then having Hog inform him that Molly accidently let it slip that she’d seen them kiss during one of Hana’s livestreams and how apparently both of their hordes of fans were freaking out about it.

Then, probably to change the subject, they told him about how Symmetra seemed to be just as fond of him as he was of her, to the extent of kissing him when no one had been around and the only reason she seemed hesitant in persuing her feelings was that because Vishkar was a group of shitbags that liked being in control of every aspect of their employees’ lives, including any possible romantic relationships. If they didn’t like who their employee was interested in, they’d forcefully separate them and make the employee go through ‘reconditioning’ or force the employee to terminate the relationship immediately and bring them back to make sure they never saw each other again.

That information made him both happy and angry for obvious reasons, but he put those aside for a bit as they told him the juicy bits that made Roadie stiffen and blush so much that even Pipsqueak could easily tell through his mask;

Mercy hadn’t liked it when the witch made it clear that she found Roadhog’s threats and violence attractive. She’d said all sorts of nice things about him to Ana when she thought Molly had been sleeping, about how he was a good person and how he didn’t deserved to be seen as a monster and when Ana had asked if the reasons she had told her were the only reason she was angry, she seemed to be uncertain on how to answer her.

After hearing that, a flustered Roadie left to take Molly and Bob outside so Bob could use the bathroom and Hana told him all about how Mercy had turned bright red when she suggested that she was jealous at the thought of Moira taking her place as Molly’s Mommy and wanted his best mate’s ‘Whole Hog’ to herself. Rat had laughed hysterically at that, pleased that both he and his best friend seemed to have caught their crushes’ attentions and that their affections seemed to be not as one sided as they dreaded they’d be.

But despite all the good times he had with them during the day, the times he enjoyed the most in Mercy’s office were at night…

When everyone else but Mercy, Roadhog, Molly and Bob had left and Mercy would tell Hog that she was turning out the lights and that it was best for them to head to bed. When Molly would whine about not being tired despite being too exhausted to read to him anymore or draw pictures for him or to play anymore of the games Hana had left in the room so they could all play with Lúcio again the next day and how she seemed to be dozing off while sitting on his bed with him. Roadhog would scoop up his little girl and tell her that they needed to let Bob out one more time before bed. Molly would pout, but she accepted defeat because she probably didn’t have the energy to fight it anyways, since she’d spent so much energy keeping Rat entertained for hours at a time.

Bob would give Rat’s hand a lick before they’d leave, the tired child would slowly wave to him as she yawned a ‘noight Rat’ to him as the door closed and he’d lay back in bed and try to get some sleep.

But Satya always came right when he was cradling on the edge of a deep slumber, dressed in her pajamas with a robe over top of them, her hair down and her expression a bit sad as she’d sit down in the chair next to his bed (where Hog had been sitting) and gently take his hand and they’d talk for a little bit. His tired ramblings usually making her laugh in some way before she’d eventually kiss him on the forehead and wish him a good night before she seemed to float out of the room and he’d drift to sleep… Or maybe that last part about the floating was a combination of his affections towards her and the pain medicine clouding his tired mind.

He really couldn’t tell you and he didn’t really care.

All he knew was that her kisses and laughter were amazing…

Okay, maybe the floating was mostly due to his love addled brain…

…

Yup, definitely his love-addled brain…

“Oi, Rat!” Molly called, snapping him out of his thoughts and back to the little spa party at hand as she smiled broadly at him. She was wearing the same dress she had been when he and Hog had stopped the Hyde bitch from shooting them, she had said that Pharah explained that people usually got dressed up for parties, he had a feeling she just wanted to wear the dress her Dadhog said looked good on her, but he kept his mouth shut as the child happily announced that, “Reinhardt’s nails are all done! ‘E picked th’ ace helmet design you drew!”

“Helmet design?” Ana asked, curious as she looked up from her own nails, which seemed to be almost dry.

Hana got up and walked over to Lúcio, who had been in charge of playing soothing music and motioned for him to join him and Ana on the couch so she could start on his nails as she handed him a sheet of paper for him to choose off of as she tugged him towards the couch.

“Yeah, based it off ‘is helmet.” He said, pulling out his notebook and sketching out the design for her to look at and passed it to her. Ana looked intreged and looked from his shabby notebook over to Reinhardt, who was cheerfully admiring his fingers beside Zenyatta and Genji who were excitedly awaiting their turns to get their nails done as they struggled to decide what they wanted off of their sheets.

After realizing that the Cyborg and the Omnics in their little Overwatch family would feel a bit put out for being unable to try Mei’s homemade facial creams (Well, Genji could, but the bots couldn’t), be unable to get a massage from Zarya (this being either due to her distrust of them or their metal bodies was unknown) and the nail treatments for not having fingernails, the girls decided to at least figure out a way to let them enjoy the manicures. So they slapped fake nails that Pharah and Brigitte had snagged from a shop in town at the last minute (along with three large bags filled with nail polish because they had some pretty big blokes and bots around here) on Zenyatta and Genji so they could be included. Bastion and Orisa also had fake nails on too, but Sayta had to make them one by one with her hard light, so they were taking a bit longer to put on. So they were given their papers after Ana had gotten hers and were currently happily trying to pick one of the nice options Junkrat had drawn up for them to put on their new fingernails (the other ones, that he felt_ actually_ suited the damn things were quickly rejected by the two Pipsqueaks in the building, so he had to draw nice ones for them… with Molly and Hana doing most of the idea work while he simply drew them out). The lovely architect seemed to be enjoying her chat with Genji and Zenyatta as she worked, the two seeming to be just as excited about this as the larger omnics were. Genji commenting that this was his first manicure in _years_ and it was nice to enjoy something like this again.

Brigitte smiled as she sat on a chair from the dining hall and painted a fresh coat of blue nail polish on Roadhog’s fingers, the two chatting about a book he had loaned her earlier in the week with Bob snoozing down by his feet, his own nails painted red to match his collar.

Torbjorn, Morrison and McCree were laughing it up with Mei’s masks on their faces while Lena was finishing up her work of painting a little American flag on one of Morrison’s middle fingers and giggling along with them. The Pommy looking a little less sad that she’d had to take Emily back home the night before and was acting more like her usual chipper self as she joked around with them.

Mei and Winston were discussing her mask recipes and what they were supposed to do and why as he munched on a few of Ana’s favorite snacks, being careful to not smear the nearly dried nail polish on his fingers on his food or anything else for that matter while she readied Reinhardt for his facial. Winston’s fingers adorned with a coil on his thumbs and lighting arching across his fingers while Mei’s had snowflakes with Snowball’s happy face on her thumbs and icicles on her trigger finger.

Mercy and Pharah held trays with more party food and drinks with widened eyes and pained expressions as they watched Zarya bend Hanzo awkwardly on a table covered in pillows, the popping sounds catching everyone’s attention for a moment.

“Your legs are very tense and weak,” She said disapprovingly as she straightened him back out, “Tomorrow I will help you work on them, be at the gym at nine in the morning and I will make them as strong as iron.”

“The dragon –urk!- Thanks you, he guesses?” he squeaked with a grimace before she went back to gently stroking circles into his back, his body relaxing a bit now that he was not longer at risk of becoming a human prezel.

The others quickly went back to their tasks and conversations, Mercy and Pharah leaning over to get a look at Ana’s nails and Lúcio’s options.

“Nice choice, Mother.” Pharah complimented.

“Thank you, Fareeha.” She purred, “Junkrat drew a few other nice ideas for me, but I wanted to keep it simple for now. Perhaps I might try some of these other ideas for Halloween and Christmas.”

“What’s Christmas?” Molly asked, holding a bottle of white nail polish and a toothpick.

“Why are you holding a toothpick?” Mercy asked.

“’Cause Rat’s fingers should be dry now, so I can start writin’ words on ‘um.” She said simply, “Now what’s Christmas?”

Ana began explaining what that was to her while the Brazilian Dj turned to Junkrat and asked, “Words?”

Rat nodded, “Yeah,” he held up his left hand. His fingers were black, as they usually were, but there was a well painted explosion on his thumb, “Me fingers are going to have ‘tick tock’ on ‘um ‘n then we’re paintin’ the word ‘Boom’ on me denonatin’ thumb.” He explained. This got a nod of understanding and an ‘oooh’ before Hana handed the two women their own papers and motioned for them to join them on two nearby chairs that had been pulled out of the cafeteria, like all the other spare chairs that they had spread around the room were.

“I like this one.” Lúcio said, pointing to the one with musical notes in yellow and green with his frog icon on his thumbs. Hana smiled and nodded and motioned for him to pick a background color while Molly got to work on Rat’s pinky.

“So, is Dadhog excited ta see what you picked fer ‘im?” He asked her. She smiled and nodded, “Yeah!” she pouted a bit as she then explained that, “’E already figured out what ‘m gonna do…” she perked back up again, “But ‘e loikes th’ idea, so it’s alroight!”

He nodded in understanding, although it was still a bit hard to get used to the idea that Molly could tell what he was thinking and move stuff with her mind, he knew he’d get used to it. He’d decided as soon as he was informed of her powers that Molly was Molly. He wasn’t going to treat her differently than he already did just because he learned that she had psychic powers… Although he did plan to watch what he was thinking about around her, just in case…

“Agreed. Although, I do wonder if you peeked inside his head to see what he’d want.” Ana teased.

“Nope!” she said proudly, “I thought it up all by myself!” She then looked a bit sheepish when she then admitted that, “I did try ta read ‘Risa’s moind earlier, but I couldn’ hear nothin’.” She looked at her metallic friend, “Guess ‘cause she’s made of metal. Prob’ly why I can’ read Zen’s or Bastion’s…” she paused for a moment, thoughtful, “Now tha’ I think ‘bout it, I can’ read Genji’s moind neither…”

“Wait, you can’t read Genji’s mind?” Mercy asked, intreged.

“Nope.” She said before turning back to her work at hand and carefully began drawing a white line on Rat’s pinky with the toothpick, her hand a bit shaky as she did her best to make the first ‘T’ look like a proper ‘T’.

“But ‘e’s got lots of metal ‘round ‘is head. Figure tha’ moight be why I can’ hear ‘im.” She said with a shrug, “I’ll talk ta Winston ‘bout it later. ‘M gonna focus on mah work fer th’ toime bein’.”

Mercy looked as if she was about to protest, only for Ana to raise her hand, “The moment Winston hears about this, he’ll lock himself in his lab for the rest of the day and miss out on all the fun. She’ll tell him later. Now sit down and show me what he drew for you.”

Mercy frowned for a moment before Pharah grabbed her arm and led her to the chairs and scooted them closer to her mother’s spot while Hana began painting Lúcio’s nails pink as she talked to him about their new idea for a collab.

Rat smiled as Molly squinted her eyes and her tongue began poking out of the corner of her mouth, only to go back in to wiggle another loose tooth.

Molly had picked up speaking and reading very quickly, but her handwriting and spelling were more of a struggle for her, then again, she’d had less practice with those than she did when it came to talking. And she read with her Dadhog a lot, which made her get much better with reading children’s books. She had practiced writing a lot the day before, but her handwriting was still pretty poor and she struggled to make each letter look nice on his hand.

After finishing her wiggly ‘T’ she smiled confidently and began on the letter ‘I’.

She had finished her first ‘TICK’ and ran out of room to put ‘TOCK’ on there as well.

“Just put a word on each finger, Molls, it’ll still spell out ‘tick tock tick tock.’” He said when he saw her bottom lip start to quiver at her inability to write smaller or neater.

Molly gave him an apologetic look as she nodded, “Sorry fer makin’ th’ letters so big…”

“I actually loike ‘um bettah tha’ way.” He said, “Easier ta read ‘um.” She smiled at that and happily went back to work, both on his nails and her tooth.

“You should give that tooth a break,” Pharah said, holding out the tray for her, “Here, have some knafeh.”

Molly made a face at the strange word and stopped halfway through her second ‘T’ to face her and ask, “Some _what_?”

“Knafeh, it’s a middle eastern dessert.” Mercy informed her, “It’s a cheese pastry soaked in a sweet syrup.”

“It was always a treat for when I returned home on break.” Ana said fondly as she carefully motioned for her daughter to cut her a piece, “My parents would pick me up and we’d pick up Fareeha from school and all go out for dinner before going to this tiny shop in Cairo for knafeh.” She smiled softly and chuckled, “When Fareeha was little, she’d get the syrup all over her mouth and would pout whenever I’d wipe it off!”

“Mother!” she cried out, embarrassed.

“Da’ does tha’ whenever ‘m eatin’ somethin’ with jam.” Molly said sympathetically as she gave Pharah a gentle pat on the arm, making him, Hana, Lúcio and Mercy giggle.

“That’s because you are the messiest eater I’ve ever seen in my life!” Lúcio teased as he pointed at her.

“Nuh uh!” she argued, “Rat ‘n Hog are messy too!”

“It’s true.” Rat agreed, “But tha’s more ‘cause after twenty years or so of scavenging in th’ Outback, ya learn ta shove as much food as ya can inta yer gob as fast as ya can so ya don’ lose it. Ya don’ have toime ta try ta be neat when yer tryin’ ta survive.”

Molly nodded as she finished up her first ‘O’ and looked at it critically before showing it to Hana, “This too lumpy?”

“Looks good to me, keep going!” Hana urged.

“Molly! Molly!” Lúcio cheered while he pumped his free hand into the air, Molly smiled and continued her work as Lena called out, “Oi, Jack’s done, going to do Jesse’s next!”

“Which one did he pick?” Ana asked.

“Th’ one where all ‘is nails are red loike his poncho and a little clock set to noon on his middle finger!” she said.

“Did you draw that that so I could show whenever it was ‘high noon’?” McCree joked.

“’Course, mate!” He snickered, “Plus, then you can always say tha’ without it bein’ wrong!”

“Much obliged, partner!” he laughed back as Lena pulled out all the shades of red nail polish that they had and the two of them began comparing the colors to his poncho.

Molly continued to carefully paint out the ‘C’ and ‘K’ as Brigitte finished painting Roadie’s nails blue and informed them that she was moving on to start painting the flames onto Torb’s nails and Mei carefully began removing the masks off Torbjörn, Morrison and McCree’s faces, “Ana, are you ready for your facial?” she asked.

“Yes!” she said, taking one of the trays with her and leaving the slice her daughter had cut for her behind, “Molly, give that a try, I think you will like it.” she instructed.

“But I’m not done with Rat’s fingers!” She said.

“Have Junkrat feed you with his metal hand, then.” Ana said as she slipped between Reinhardt and Morrison and placed the tray nearby.

“Well, if we weren’t messy eaters before…” he joked.

“Perhaps she should try the dates with goat cheese first.” Mercy suggested as she picked up a platter with fruits stuffed with what looked like cottage cheese.

“I thought cheese came from cow’s milk.” Molly said with a thoughtful frown.

“All mammals can produce milk, not just cows, it’s simply that most people drink cow’s milk. But we can also drink goat’s milk, camel’s milk, llama’s milk, reindeer milk, sheep’s milk, yak’s milk and water buffalo’s milk.” Winston informed them before he and Lena started joking around with Morrison, who happily showed off his patriotic middle fingers to the group, making them chuckle.

“Okay, I knew about cow’s milk, goat milk, and yak’s milk but I never knew about the other ones.” Hana said.

“’N I thought tha’ dates are what people do when they loike each other ‘n wanna get ta know each other more.” Molly said.

“Dates are also a fruit.” Pharah said, “It’s very sweet. Try it.” She then held one out to her and Molly took a bite, chewing thoughtfully as she wrote out another ‘T’. Molly swallowed, still looking thoughtful before turning to Pharah and politely asking for the rest of the sweet.

The Egyptian obliged, watching the little girl shove the rest of it in her mouth, save for a few chunks of goat cheese on her lips and continue to look thoughtful as she quickly painted an ‘I’ and a ‘C’ on his finger before swallowing again and licking her lips. “It’s good, it’s jus’ not what I expected when you said cheese.”

“There are all sorts of cheeses, Molly.” Mercy informed her, “The milks are only part of it, the process used to make the cheese can impact how they will taste too.”

She didn’t really seem to get it, but she seemed to like it enough to ask for another one, “Please.” And happily munched on it while she finished up a few more letters on his fingers, the letters coming out more fluidly now.

Satya finished up the last of the hard light nails and walked over to their little group and looked down at his hands, “How is she doing?” she asked.

“Great!” he said motioning to his flesh hand with his metal one, “She’s almost to me thumb!” he said proudly. Hana finished painting Lúcio’s nails pink and looked over to the bots and Genji, “Have any of them picked out what they wanted yet?”

“Orisa loves the one with the puppies on them and Bastion likes the one with the bird hatching from the egg, but Genji and Zenyatta are still contemplating their choices.” Satya informed them.

“I can start the base coats for Bastion and Orisa while they pick them out.” Hana volunteered before getting up and telling Lúcio not to move, “Molly, when you’re done with Rat’s nails, can you start the base coats for Angela and Pharah?” Molly nodded with a determined expression and a salute.

“You can count on me!” she said boldly before quickly placing her used toothpick on an empty plate nearby.

“Oi, Molls, why don’t ya get their nails started while mine dry?” He asked her as he wiggled his thumb, “This guy can wait a,” he held up his picky to show the ‘tick’ she wrote out, making her giggle, “Okay, Rat!” she said as she went over to the two women and began chatting about what options they had picked and the base colors they wanted while Satya stayed only a back of a couch away from him as she softly asked if she could get a better look at his fingers. He held up his hand to her and she gently took his flesh hand into both of her own, “It’s a bit shaky, but it’s more difficult to write on an uneven surface and it seems as though she slowly adapted as she worked. And I do like the way she painted the explosion on your thumb, she did a good job with the colors.” She critiqued.

“I know, roight?” he said proudly, “She put each color on one at a toime, even waited to make sure they dried ‘fore puttin’ on a new color.”

“Very impressive.” She agreed with a soft smile, “She is very skilled in the arts, perhaps she’ll be a painter or a sculptor in the future.”

“Nope,” Rat said, “Molly said tha’ when she grows up, she wants be a Hero of Overwatch, jus’ loike all of us.” He felt a sense of pride and warmth fill his chest as he remembered her telling him that during one of the long days of lazing about with him in the medibay.

‘Hero’.

He’d been called plenty of things in his life, most of them very unpleasant to say the least, but he’d never really been called a hero before. And he’d never heard someone he cared about call him a hero either.

It was really nice.

He helped inspire a child to want to become a hero, and it was more than a bit overwhelming for him, emotionally speaking. He was so touched that he cried for a bit after Hog took her and Bob outside for a bit and Mercy kindly gave him some tissues and Hana had gave him a hug as the two of them cried from ‘the _feels_!’

He noted that Mercy also dabbed at her face with a tissue and Molly had asked Rat later why Roadie had been crying and he had to explain that he was crying because he was so happy that she wanted to help people like he was. This made her a very cheerful child for the rest of the day.

And it would seem as though Satya felt just as touched by the child’s desire to follow in all of their footsteps here at Overwatch as they had been, “T-that’s quite sweet.” She stammered, her face stiffening as if she was trying to contain tears behind a stoic expression.

He nodded, smiling, both due from her agreeing with him and her still holding his hand in hers. She became bashful and let go, but asked if she could have her sheet so she could look at her options, “After the ones I saw that you chose for the others, I am quite curious as to what you came up with for me.” She said. He happily passed her the page of designs he had come up with for her and the two happily discussed them for a while. But just as Molly had finished the first coats on Mercy and Pharah’s fingernails (and asked Hana, Lena, Brigitte and Zarya over to inspect it and was given four thumbs up) she then walked back over towards him to finish what she had started on his thumb, there was an announcement from Athena;

“Agent Symmetra, your guest is here.”

“Guest?” Satya repeated, confused, “I was not expecting anyone today…”

“He said that he called you last night and informed you that he’d be coming to see you today.” The AI informed them.

Junkrat scowled at this information only to remember that, even if someone had called last night, he recalled that Satya had been sitting with him late last night talking with him. So she would have not gotten such a call… so it meant that this bloke was full of it.

“He?” she repeated, “I am sorry Athena, but I did not get any late night calls last night and I have no idea who would be visiting today.”

“This is unfortunate because I already let him in. Shall I detain him?” Athena asked.

“Who did you let in, Athena?” Winston asked, finally getting to the root of the matter.

“Sanjay Korpal.” The disembodied voice replied. Satya’s eyes widened, her expression panicked as she murmured something frantically in her native tongue.

Junkrat knew who this asshat was. He’d seen his name on multiple e-mails addressed to her from Vishkar and seen his face on the holo-calls she’d take in the conference room.

“Okay, anyone else wondering who this Sanjay guy is?” McCree asked, a little annoyed to be out of the loop as Lena finished up the clock on his finger.

“Symmetra’s boss.” Mercy replied softly as a sense of dread and panic began to poison the happy mood that they had all been enjoying.

“Is ‘e tha’ bad?” Molly asked, confused by the reaction this information caused. She knew that Vishkar’s big bosses were bad guys, but since she didn’t really have much of an understanding of corporate structures (then again, Rat knew nothing about that either), she had no idea where on the ladder Satya or her boss would be.

“It’s not that _he_’s bad, Molly.” Mercy began.

“Yeah right…” Lúcio muttered, earning himself a pinch to the leg from Hana that made him yelp.

“It’s that he won’t be happy to see Lúcio here.” Ana said plainly.

Mercy nodded, “We asked Symmetra to keep Lúcio working here a secret from Vishkar, remember? If he walks in and sees him here, it could cause us all a lot of trouble.”

Molly pouted at this and rubbed her head for a moment, “I don’ see what th’ big deal is. We can say Hana invoited him over ta play. Tha’ way ‘Metra can deny knowin’ ‘e’d be ‘ere ‘n he won’ know nothin’ ‘bout ‘im workin’ ‘ere.”

The others looked at her in awe before she clarified that, “Is what Hana was thinkin’.” She then pointed to Pharah, “I loike her plan of havin’ Ana ‘n Morrison interrogate ‘im better though.”

“And why is that?” Morrison asked. Pharah quickly placed her hand over Molly’s mouth, “Don’t.” she said firmly. Molly made a face and Pharah released her quickly, the child’s tongue sticking out as the woman wiped her hand on her pants, grossed out.

“’Er Mum loikes doin’ tha’ ‘n it’s ‘er birthday, so it’d be loike a birthday treat,” she said plainly before looking to Pharah with a confused frown, “I don’ see what’s so embarrassin’ ‘bout tha’.” Pharah flushed and covered her face with one hand, peeking out between her fingers at her pleased mother seated across the room.

“She was quite good at getting them to talk…” Torbjörn agreed with a stroke of his braided beard.

“_Was_?” Ana repeated, her tone silently challenging the past tense used in that sentence.

“I hate to interrupt, but since I was not told to detain him, he’ll be here in a moment.” Athena reminded them.

“Let him in.” Morrison said calmly, “We’ll go with Hana’s plan if he sees him, if he starts asking too many questions, we’ll start poking holes in the lies he used to get in.”

After a few moments to consider this, they all didn’t have the chance to agree or disagree because the little bastard who couldn’t lie straight in bed decided to crash their happy little party finally entered the room, looking a bit surprised to see the gang was all there, except for Lúcio and Molly.

He apparently decided to lay low for now and carefully slid down to the floor right before the suit came in. Hana scooting beside him and Pharah quickly slipping into his seat to block him from view, holding a tray of snacks out to Junkrat and Satya, as if she’d been offering them snacks before the jerk crashed their party.

Meanwhile, Molly had decided to resume Rat’s nails, her small size making it easy for the man to miss her since she was shorter than the backrest of the couch.

“Oh, I wasn’t expecting you all to be here…” The suit said, a bit embarrassed.

“Th’ feelin’s mutual, mate.” He muttered under his breath. Lúcio stifled a snicker at his comment before he wandered over towards Satya, who looked just as confused as she did when she first heard he was here, but was thoughtful enough to slip her paper into the pocket of her slacks before he could see it.

“I wanted to discuss the Landcolm building designs you submitted to us, I forgot to give you the lastest specifications they sent over before you handed it in and wanted to see if it was possible to do a few changes…”

“Oh, certainly, give me a moment I was just…” The suit noticed her design sheet in her hand and snatched it away, looking at it with a critical eye before letting out a snort, “I think this can wait, don’t you?” he asked coolly.

“The deadline isn’t for another month, I still have plenty of time…” She began.

“Actually, they also pushed the deadline to submit the designs up as well.” He said. Junkrat could easily see that the bloke was lying and would’ve happily told him to bugger off, but Symmetra, ever the professional, took it in stride.

“Alright then, if I could have those new specifications...”

“I e-mailed them to you.” He cut her off in a stern tone, making her wince.

“Fer th’ love of Christ!” he blurted, turning around to get a better view of the drongo as he snatched her paper back, “Did you seriously crash Nan’s bash jus’ ta prove tha’ yer as useless as an ashtray on a motorbike?”

Roadie snorted at that, then whispered the meaning of the expression to a confused McCree, who openly laughed and whispered the meaning onto Morrison, Reinhardt, Genji and Torb and the four of them spread it further from there.

“I-I beg your pardon?” He said, obviously not understanding his lingo nor expecting someone to take Satya’s sheet from his hands.

Molly finished his thumb with a proud expression on her face before placing the toothpick down on the empty plate with the other one before crawling up the couch and saying, “He means, if you emailed all this to ‘er, why are you ‘ere, crashing our party ‘n tellin’ ‘er ‘bout it? It could’ve waited ‘til after th’ party ‘n wouldn’ th’ email be ‘nough ta tell ‘er ‘bout it?” The man jumped at the sight of her, obviously not expecting a child to be among the party members.

He quickly collected himself and gave Satya a sideways glance, “You never mentioned a child in your reports,” he said sternly, “Is there a reason for this?”

“I-“ she began, only for Junkrat to decide to step in, “Hog ‘n me asked ‘er not ta talk ‘bout it.” he replied in her stead, all eyes turning to him, “We went back home fer a bit ta grab some stuff a few months back ‘n an old friend of Hog’s asked if we could get ‘er daughter outta Junkertown.” He motioned to Molly with his metal hand, “Queenie ain’ got no problems takin’ kids as collateral when ya don’ pay yer taxes. Thought it was bettah if you lot didn’ know jus’ in case you got any workers in Oz.”

“Oz?” The suit repeated, looking at him as if he had lost his mind.

“Australia.” Molly translated.

“Trust us, mate, you don’ want word of her bein’ ‘ere gettin’ ta Queenie if ya wanna keep those blokes of yours aloive.”

“Is that a threat?” he snapped.

“Nah, it’s th’ truth. Queenie’s a roight bitch, but fer some reason most of Junkertown loves her. Roadie ‘n Me couldn’ tell ya why, but they do ‘n they’d do anythin’ for ‘er.” He then motioned towards Satya, “Told ‘er tha’ ‘n the three of us figured it was best ta leave it out of yer reports, jus’ in case.”

“I-I see.” The suit stammered, “But I still don’t see why you’d bring her _here_.”

“’Cause, it’s way better fer ‘er ‘ere than it is back home ‘n th’ ape said it was foine.” He said plainly, “I mean, ‘ere we can give her enough ta eat, plenty of fresh, clean, non-radiated drinkin’ water ta drink…”

“’N I don’ havta use a bucket no more when I havta pee or poo!” Molly said cheerfully, pleased that she had caught on to what he was doing.

Because, while Molly didn’t grow up in Junkertown, some of the conditions she _had_ grown up in weren’t all that different to what they’d dealt with back home, so she could use some of them to make it seem as if she actually _had_ grown up in Junkertown.

The suit scrunched up his nose in disgust, “You went to the _bathroom_ in a _bucket_?”

“Loike I said ‘fore,” Rat said with a shrug, “there’s plenty of fresh, clean, non-radiated drinking water _‘ere_. We don’ have ‘nough of tha’ ta drink back in Oz, let alone piss or shite in, so we use buckets, holes ya dig in the dirt, spots behind buildin’s…”

“I think I get the point.” He said, holding up his hand and looking a bit pale. Rat chuckled, “Yer lookin’ bit pale there, mate. Maybe you should sit down, Molls ‘ere can even do yer nails fer a bit.”

“Yeah!” Molly said, “I can make ‘um real pretty!” Lúcio shook his head wildly, but Rat instead got up and started walking towards him, purposefully standing in front of him and holding his hand out, “’Ere, you can take me seat.”

“While that is very thoughtful, I couldn’t…”

“Nah, I insist, mate! I’ve been stuck in bed fer nearly a week, so I need ta stretch me legs a little!” he said, pausing then chuckling and correcting himself with a, “Well, leg ‘n peg, but it’s th’ same principal!” He then motioned for the suit to take the short way around, Pharah motioning towards the other side of the couch with her hand from under the tray she was holding and then down towards the bots with the other, out of the suit’s sight. He seemed to get the message before quickly scuttling to the side of the couch on his hands and knees as the suit seemed to contemplate the offer, looking more than just a bit uncomfortable.

Hana popped up and said, “It’ll probably be way more comfortable then just sitting around the workshop and waiting around for Symmetra to finish up. I bet she’d be more comfortable too, nothing worse than having someone looking over your shoulder when you’re trying to work.”

“I could always give you a massage.” Zarya offered as she motioned to Hanzo, who seemed a bit uneasy on his legs before he flopped onto the floor.

“…” The man seemed unable to argue their points and a bit nervous to accept Zarya’s offer so, he mumbled out that he probably only had time for a quick manicure before leaving and softly turned down Zarya’s offer before walking over to the offered spot with an uncomfortable look on his face. Lúcio quickly ran over towards the bots, hiding behind Bastion and Orisa, their large bodies hiding him from view as Lena quickly picked up the tray of food and walked over to them, asking if they’d ever heard of Knafeh and showed it to them, Lúcio helping himself to a slice as he listened to the three of them chatter on.

“I’ll be back with a corrected design.” Symmetra said before exiting the room.

“What color would ya loike?” Molly asked cheerfully, motioning to the multiple bottles nearby.

“Can you do French tips?” he asked, ignoring the child’s question while his upper lip curled with distaste at her accent.

“What’s tha’?” Molly asked, confused.

“That.” He corrected.

“Molly, why don’t I do his nails?” Hana said, “_Tha’_ way, I can show you what _tha’ _is.” She said, her tone a bit defensive as she motioned for the child to move over and motioned for him to give her his hand so she could start as she undid the bottle of white.

“Oh, I almost forgot!” Molly said, popping up from her spot to run over towards Rat, tugging on his metal arm when she reached him. Once he lowered himself to a spot close to her level, she cupped her hands around her mouth and whispered, “I left th’ present I made fer Ana in th’ workshop, she’s gonna open presents after Zarya gives ‘er a massage, can you go get it fer me?” He smiled and nodded, “’Course! Jus’ let me know if anyone takes a swing at th’ suit while ‘m gone, ay?” He whispered back as he popped back to his usual hunched over posture.

“Okay!” she said cheerfully as she resumed her spot next to Hana as she explained the steps and worked through the man’s nails. Junkrat announced he was going to get something and that he’d be right back before he made his way to the door.

“And where are you going?” the suit asked, suspicious.

Rat turned around to see the man giving him a stern look, he held up his hands in mock surrender and let out a cackle, “Easy, mate! Jus’ gettin’ Bob’s toy so th’ Cowboy can show us a new trick ‘e’s been teachin’ ‘im. I’ll be roight back, struth!”

And it was the truth, apparently ever since the shoot out at the petshop, McCree had seemed to get over whatever problem he had with the wrinkly pup and became fast friends with it, he had even taught him a few tricks that he’d entertained Junkrat with while he was in the medibay.

“Bob?” Sanjay Korpal repeated, confused.

“Molly’s dog.” He said, indicating the dog by his best friend’s feet.

“That dog is alive?” Sanjay said, in utter disbelief that anyone would consider the beast on the floor to be a proper pet of any kind.

“Why does everyone keep sayin’ tha’?” Molly asked, her tone hurt and upset, “’Course ‘e’s aloive! He’s jus’ nappin’!” She then walked over and gently rubbed his ears, making his raggedy tail wag like crazy and the mutt roll over onto his back, revealing his belly in hopes of getting belly rubs, “See?” she said defensively as she stroked his furry belly, “Bob’s aloive ‘n happy!”

“Oh… M-my apologies.” He said, uncomfortable by all the glares he was now getting from the adults in the room, “I um, well…”

Rat figured it was a good enough time to leave, only for him to hear the suit snap, “You _aren’t_ going to the workshop, are you? Because Miss Vaswani needs quiet to work.”

‘What she needs is you bastards ta moind yer own business,’ he thought angrily, but instead of saying what he _really_ wanted to say, he decided that it would be best not to piss the bloke who could take Satya away from him before he could convince her that he’d make an excellent boyfriend (and more, wink wink).

So he’d lie. If the wanker found out, he could say that he knew for a fact that he was lying and tell him that she left her tablet by his bedside in Mercy’s office overnight after forgetting it there that afternoon when she visited him for a bit and he hadn’t heard it ding once last night or something to make him back off.

“Nah, Molls ‘ere left it in th’ medibay when she ‘n Bob came ta visit me yesterday.” He fibbed with ease.

“Then perhaps Dr. Zeigler…”

“Old Angel Wing’s nails ain’ dry yet.” He cut him off, “‘N, again mate, a little walk’ll be good for me.” He then slipped through the door before the suit could say anymore.

Of course he was going to the workshop! (After the medibay anyways, he needed to get that toy to prove he’d been there) He told his niece he would get the present she made for Ana from there, and what kind of uncle would he be if he didn’t keep his word?


	25. Black 'n Blood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sanjay Korpal continues to sour the mood, but what he does next may end up getting him killed if Hog has anything to say about it.

Roadhog watched his best friend leave with a large grin on his face before turning to see his little girl quickly become bored with the suit’s choice. Once Pipsqueak finished showing her what a ‘French Tip’ was, she bluntly informed the two of them that, “Tha’s borin’! Why not do somethin’ more fun with ‘um, loike everyone else’s nails?”

“It’s not productive for business,” the man said sternly, “Also, it’s ‘that’, ‘something’, ‘them’ and ‘like’.”

“Yer koinda business sounds borin’.” She said plainly, seeming to ignore the jabs at her pronunciation before she started fiddling with her tooth again with a small frown on her face. To Hog, that just showed that she was trying to act as if his words hadn’t hurt.

He snarled from his spot and so did Bob, both ready to go for the throat if he kept this bullshit up.

Hana, Mercy and Pharah looked ready to rip the man’s head off for insulting the child, hell everyone looked like that, “Molly, why don’t you work on Roadhog’s nails, they’re probably ready for the next coat, I’ll finish up Mercy and Pharah’s myself, okay?” Hana said.

Molly beamed at the mention of his moniker, “Okay!” she cried and happily walked over to the large supply of nail polish they had and grabbed two containers of pale pink nail polish and rushed over to him, his own smile growing behind his mask at the sight of how eager she was to spend some time with him as she held out her tiny hands for him to give her his own massive ones.

His smile grew a bit bigger as he gently held it out for her, the cowlicks on her head curling tightly on her head in the shape of a heart as she took his hand and began getting to work, painting pink circles in the middle of his nails.

Hanzo walked over and leaned towards the two of them, his joints popping loudly as he moved, “How are ya feelin’, Hanzo?” she asked him.

“Quite well, actually.” He replied, “I now see why Junkrat always seems so refreshed whenever he pops his joints, my body hasn’t felt this loose or relaxed in ages.”

“You’ve never been loose or relaxed _ever_.” Genji teased. The comment sparking an argument between the brothers that entertained the group for a little while, although Roadhog kept an eye on the suit, who seemed to be trying to win Hana’s affection for Vishkar. Saying that they’d be happy to update her MECKA and suit her up in better gear if she’d put in a good word for them with her fans.

_That_ bit got the other’s attention and they watched with impish expressions as Hana kept her eyes on Mercy’s fingers and spoke to the suit in a light tone of voice that seemed to stab at him with vemonous jabs as she turned him down at every corner, with Mercy trying to keep the peace and Pharah trying really hard not to laugh her ass off. (She wasn’t doing very well, but hey, at least he finally saw evidence of her having a sense of humor.)

“I only wish I had a camera.” Ana chuckled, “I haven’t seen Fareeha laugh like that in ages.”

“I’ll keep tha’ in moind fer Christmas.” Hog joked, making her throw her head back and laugh before Mei informed her that it was time to take off the mask and she carefully removed the gunk from her and Reinhardt’s faces and Zarya instructed her to hop onto the table covered in pillows, “Now, have you had any stiff or sore muscles lately?” she asked as she helped her up.

“Da’?” Molly called. He looked down at her and saw that she had finished with one hand and held out his other to her so she could continue, “No, Da’! It’s toime ta let Bob out!”

He asked if anyone had the time and Bastion beeped out a reply that Zenyatta translated into, “12:30 pm.”

12:30… They had let Bob out at about 8:30 that morning before they started Ana’s birthday spa day at nine that morning. Had it really been four hours already? He nearly got up, only for Molly to cry out, “No! You’ll wreck yer nails!” He froze, then inspected his fingers for any smudging or smearing.

There wasn’t any, but still, he didn’t want all her and Brigitte’s hard work to be messed up… But at the same time, they all had agreed that, at least for the next month or so that Molly couldn’t go outside the base without an adult present. Even if it was just to let Bob out to go to the bathroom.

“I’ll go with them.” Winston volunteered, “But I am not cleaning up if he deficates.”

“Tha means poopin’, roight?” Molly asked. He nodded.

“No worries.” She told him, “Bob is my dog, so I clean up after ‘im!” She pulled a poop bag from her dress pocket, “’M ready when you are, Winston!” she said cheerfully.

The gorilla walked the smallest ones in the room towards the nearest door, Molly waving to them all before they left, Hog’s chest aching a bit that he had been unable to do it himself. Because, while he was grateful, he honestly would have rather taken them out himself since it had kind of become a habit for him to go outside with them and honestly, he thought it was cute when Molly cheered Bob on as he took a piss or shit. But he kept his mouth shut and sucked it up. The last thing he needed was the suit to decide to take Molly away from him just to spite him and Rat if they somehow managed to offend him (which, let’s be honest here, is something they would love to do).

And while Hyde had been hell for his little girl, judging by how much Symmetra idolized Vishkar and how frightened she was of losing her place with them, he didn’t think his little girl would be any better off with them.

That and Vishkar had experience in taking in young children and making them successful, if child services heard that the company was interested in taking Molly in… Well, he doubted they’d have a hard time choosing between letting her stay with him or letting the suit take her away from him.

Lúcio quietly snuck out from behind the bots and joined them so Brigitte could start painting musical notes on his fingers as well as his frog logo. His expression wary, due to being tired of hiding when this guy obviously was too busy trying to recruit Hana to Vishkar to notice him and and angry since one of the monsters who fucked up his home was basically trying to win his crush’s affections with shiny, fancy gear and more fame.

So that made two blokes who wanted the Vishkar company to fuck off and leave their crushes alone.

Mei asked him, Lúcio and Genji if they wanted a face mask as well but Roadhog turned her down politely, pointing out that he’d need to remove his mask to do so.

“Oh, right, you need that to breathe! Sorry Roadhog, I forgot!” She said apologetically. He waved her off, telling her it was no big deal, that he often forgot he had it on himself and that he appreciated her including him far too much to take offense.

So she carefully put the gunk on their faces while Zenyatta politely and carefully passed him a plate of that weirdly named pastry thing (which made him uncomfortable, but dammit, the bot was helping his kid and the least he could do was play nice, especially when he was simply passing him tasty snacks!), Lena started on Orisa’s nails. The Pommy complimenting her on her choice and asking if, when they were done, if she could send pictures of her nails to her girlfriend. The bot happily agreed and asked if it would be alright if she could send the pictures to her friend and creator, Efi, as well.

“How old is this Efi kid?” Hog found himself asking, surprising those around them by the question.

“Efi is eleven, but she will be twelve in May!” Orisa answered happily, obviously overjoyed to discuss her creator. Bastion let out a few beeps that Zenyatta translated into, “Bastion is asking why that may be important.”

He shrugged, “She ain’ tha’ much older than Molly, figure it moight be good ta have ‘nother ankle biter ‘round ‘er age ta talk to. Thought it might be noice if ‘Risa put in a good word fer ‘er.” He managed to hold back a wince at calling the yellow and green bot by name.

But he sucked it up because, again, this was for his little girl to learn to socialize with others around her age. Which was important since he had no idea how long it would take for her to catch up to the academic level of other kids her age and it was better to have her somewhat prepared rather than have her go in blind!

“Tha’s not a bad idea.” Torbjörn said thoughtfully, “Maybe we can have Lena fly her and my kids over to play with her some time, get her used to spending time with other kids.”

“Papa, most of us are adults now.” Brigitte said firmly. Lúcio and Zenyatta seemed more than just a little surprised by that, Roadhog was too, for a moment anyway, until he recalled that Rat had told him that shortly after she’d arrived.

He’d found out when he noticed that the two had similar tattoos of gears on their shoulders, he joked it was like they were father and daughter, only for Torbjörn to start laughing and to say that, “You’re not wrong about that, Twiggy!” Confusing him and Symmetra until Brigitte explained that she actually _was_ Torb’s daughter. And while he knew it to be true, it was still took him a minute to process that she actually was his daughter when she’d scowl and say, “I cannot believe you were going to teach her that, Papa!” whenever Torb would try to teach Molly something dangerous with Rat.

They just seemed to have such different personalities and looked nothing alike… Then again, he and his mother didn’t look a thing alike, so he probably shouldn’t think about the differences and instead think of the similarities, like Junkrat pointing out their tattoos or how the two worked out problems with the same expressions on their faces, or how they always looked so intense, but happy when they were using the forge. He only recently started noticing it because of Molly being in there so often, but he could really see it when he looked hard enough.

“Oscar is only thirteen! And I bet Molly’ll love the wee ones!” He pointed out, Brigitte seemed to consider this as he then argued that, “Plus, the three of them like building things, if all else fails, we can take them to the workshop and let them fiddle around with odds and ends. You of all people know how working on a project can bring people together!”

This seemed to finally convince her as she let out a sigh and smiled, “Yes, Papa, you and Mama tell us this every year on your anniversary.”

“This is great!” Reinhardt happily roared, “It will be wonderful to have so many people here again! All that we must do now is pick a date for them to visit!”

“Why don’t ya’ll have them come over for Molly’s birthday?” McCree asked.

“Her birthday is next week, that’s way too soon! Plus, Hana already planned everything and if we invite more people without telling her and ruin her plans she _will_ kill us.” Lúcio reminded them. Mei and Brigitte nodding, silently confirming that the pro gamer _would _kill them if they ruined her perfect party plans.

“And havin’ a bunch of people she don’t know might make her feel uneasy and spoil her birthday for ‘er.” Lena pointed out, the men thinking about this for a moment.

“Maybe we could have them come over fer Halloween?” Hog finally suggested, “Lúcio said that there was some event goin’ on in town then…”

“Hey, yeah!” Lúcio cried, “There’s a big party for kids being held in Town Square on Halloween Night! That can give them all something to do together to help them bond!”

“Hmm… the costumes and the other kids around her will make it easier for Molly to blend in...” Morrison said thoughtfully, “And it will be nice for her to have a day in town without a gun going off…”

Torbjörn smiled, “So it’s settled! We’ll have the kids over for the Halloween party in town!” He then pulled his phone out of his pocket with his metal hand (since the claw needed a tune up) and said, “I’ll be right back, just need ta phone th’ wife to make sure my other children don’ make other plans!”

“Ta.” He said to the short man as he hopped off the couch.

The blacksmith let out a hearty laugh, “I should be thanking you! Ingrid has been on my arse about meeting her, now I can not only tell her when she can meet the new little Junker, but that she can have Halloween off this year!” he then happily walked out of the room and into the hall, dialing the phone as the door shut behind him.

“I am sending Efi the invitation as we speak!” Orisa said cheerfully.

“Thanks.” He said to her, managing to keep the distain out of his voice.

“Oh it is my pleasure!” she told him, “I am so excited for this! This will be fun!”

“It’s your first Halloween right?” Hanzo asked.

“Yes! Agent Song and Molly have told me not to worry about my costume, they said that they picked a wonderful one for me so I can learn the customs properly!”

“But it’s Molly’s first Halloween too.” Hog pointed out.

The bot nodded, “Yes, but she said that, since she doesn’t go on missions like I do just yet, she has more free time to think of interesting costumes.” She then began waving her free hand wildly, “Oh! Do you think Efi and I will have matching costumes?” she asked excitedly.

“I dunno, love, I’m not in the loop on that, but if they didn’t do it this year, they’re probably saving it for next year.” Lena said.

The four legged bot was bouncing on her feet like a little kid so much that Lena stopped and giggled at her, although, the bot was making the furniture bounce a bit in her excitement so her stopping might have also been so she wouldn’t smudge anything or hurt herself.

It was odd, but at least now he understood why Molly had become fast friends with her, she really was like a child, which he guessed was understandable because she wasn’t even a year old yet, but, still…

Flashes of the rogue omnics that destroyed everything he held near and dear, how they had made an orphan of Junkrat (something he managed to piece together via drunk recollections Rat had while they’d been on the road), how they had destroyed so much to so many people he knew in the AFL, flashed through his mind.

Ugh, not now!

He needed to focus on being nice to them for Molly’s sake, but the memories reminded him of how deep the wounds those damn bots back in Oz had left in their wake, all the pain and suffering...

Something that he had tried so hard not to think about for the past twenty years, something he’d pushed under a thick blanket of hatred and anger and dared not to air it out, lest the pain come back and make it hard to breathe.

He probably would never fully trust Omnics after all they had done, which was something that at least Zenyatta seemed to understand and accept.

But that was fine. He only needed to trust these ones, that was all. A metal monk who left Nepal to make peace with humans, a four-legged bot who acted like a little kid and what he would wager a guess was the last functioning Bastion unit left in the world. Just three of them, he only had to trust three of them. And he didn’t even really have to _like_ them, just _trust_ them.

He could do that, right?

Luckily, before he could struggle trying to answer that in his head, Molly, Bob and Winston returned with Torbjörn in tow, Molly and Bob running over to him happily.

“Da’! Da’! Bob pooped _so_ much that all of it wouldn’t fit in the bag!” she said excitedly before scratching his head, “You did a good job, Bob!” she praised. The old blacksmith chuckled as he looked at the suit’s reaction and gave the pup a pat on the head as well, more likely for making the suit squirm than anything else, “This is why you should always grab two bags, Molly. Just in case.”

“Gotcha!” Molly said.

“Luckily I grabbed a spare from the garage before we went outside, so we don’t have to worry about any… leftovers.” Winston said, as if to assure the room that there was no lingering doggy doo outside that they could step on.

“Wait.” The suit said, getting over the joyful poop announcement pretty quickly as he looked at Roadhog with wide eyes of disbelief, “Did she just call you ‘Dad’?”

Roadhog gently scooped Molly up off the ground so she was level with his mask and held back a laugh as he asked, “What, ya can’t see th’ resemblance?”

“I-I just…” the suit seemed unable to speak through pure shock, the others in the room giggling at his reaction as Mercy calmy, but happily told him that, “They visited that _old friend _of Roadhog’s when they were gathering some of their things for a reason.” She motioned towards the happy little girl on his lap as if silently telling him, ‘and that reason is over there.’

“Can’ blame ya fer not knowin’,” Hog teased, doing his best not to laugh at the suit’s baffled expression, “She looks jus’ loike ‘er Mum.”

Molly’s eyes glistened at this information. She knew that he knew her biological mother before the Omnium blew, but he hardly mentioned her at all, so she was probably happy to learn something about the mother she’d never met.

“She got ‘er hair, face ‘n eyes.” He elaborated, “’Er smile’s all moine, though.” He fibbed, Molly giving the suit a broad smile, as if trying to prove it.

The last part seemed to make the man’s eyes narrow as the giggling started to increase in volume, “So you’re telling me you’re this girl’s biological father?”

“We think so, anyways, celebratin’ old friends with a crate full of good booze don’ clear much up, memory wise.” He fibbed, smiling broadly under the mask at the man’s expressions as he went on to say that, “She moight as well be moine, but we’re waitin’ ‘til puberity ta be sure.”

“Puberity?” he asked, the giggles growing even louder to the point where Lúcio picked Bob up into his arms and laughed against his furry head, trying to stifle the sound.

“Wasn’ always this big.” He said honestly with a shrug, “Was a tiny one ‘fore puberity. ’N ‘er Mum was always a tall sheila when she was young, so…”

“’M gonna be big ‘n strong loike Da’!” Molly cheered.

The suit seemed to have a hard time letting his lies soak in while the group was now cradling on the edge of pissing themselves laughing.

“You alroight?” Molly asked the suit, “You look koinda sick…”

“I think I should check on Vaswani…” he said, politely excusing himself before getting up to walk down the hall.

“I’ll walk you.” Pharah offered, standing up at the same time, “I wouldn’t want you to get lost.”

The suit seemed almost annoyed at the offer but bitterly accepted it with a nod and motioned for her to lead the way, which she did with her shoulders back, her head forward and her posture oozing military authority as she led the way to the workshop. Hog glanced at her mother from the corner of the lenses of his mask and saw a proud parent beaming from the makeshift massage table. He also saw Torb give her a thumbs up.

Reinhardt finally broke through the leftover giggles and spoke to Hog, “I believe there is still work to be done.” He said, indicating the blue nails.

“Oh yeah!” she said, picking up the pink nail polish again and resuming her work, Lúcio taking this opportunity to release the Bob and hop back over towards Hana to compliment her work telling that guy where he could shove it. She soaked up the praise as Mercy walked over to them, watching as Molly painted his nails with a gleeful expression.

“I think he bought it.” she whispered.

“Ya think?” he chuckled. Reinhardt laughed heartly at that and he could hear Zarya and Mei struggle to hold in their chuckles until the suit was completely out of earshot with Hanzo, who was biting his lip to try to contain them, tears trickling down his cheeks.

“Did you see his face when you said she has your smile?” Brigitte blurted through unrestrained tears of laughter. Genji waved his hand at her as if to make her stop as he laughed so hard that he started struggling to breathe and her father shook his head before throwing it backwards, his braid bouncing against his belly as he laughed, “That was better than any reaction to people hearing that you are my daughter for sure!” he howled.

“I thought I was gonna piss myself!” McCree laughed as he fell onto the floor, holding his stomach. Winston managed to wheeze out a, “Maybe I should have grabbed a bag for you too!” making the two laugh even harder.

“And when Molly said she’d grow to be as big as Roadhog?” Morrison snickered.

“HE. LOOKED. LOIKE. ‘E. WAS. GOING. TO. _BLOW_!” Lena cried as she leaned against Orisa, unable to hold herself up due to laughing too hard.

The laughter continued for a few more minutes before they all seemed to calm down. Molly painting more pink onto his fingers, her tongue wiggling the loose tooth again as she worked before smiling as she capped the bottle of pink and ran back to the large amount that sat on the floor and swapped it out for a bottle of black. She motioned to his now dry hand, which he gently swapped with the one she had just finished. She then continued to wiggle her tooth as she worked.

“You gettin’ close?” he asked her, pointing to her mouth.

“Uh huh! When I get it out, I got a plan ta help get us off Vishkar’s fundin’ fer good!” she said proudly.

Lúcio and Hana quickly slid over to their area and the DJ asked, “And what is that plan exactly?” he asked, obviously very interested.

“Well, first, I get me tooth out. Then I place me trap fer th’ tooth fairy. _Then_ I convince th’ tooth fairy ta help fund Overwatch in exchange fer teeth you lot knock out of bad guys!” she said, obviously very pleased by her plan.

“They would stop coming out if we kept pullin’ their teeth.” McCree pointed out.

“Exactly!” she said, happy that he seemed to get that, “With Talon less active ‘cause of Overwatch, tha’ proves how helpful you are ta th’ UN ‘n then they’ll repeal th’ PETRAs act ‘n then Overwatch’ll get proper fundin’ again!” She said confidently. The room thick with discomfort as the adults looked to each other, silently wondering who would break the news to her about the one flaw in her plan.

“And what makes you think a tooth fairy is an easy thing to catch?” Hanzo said, a little annoyance in his voice, probably pissed at how confident Molly was about catching him or his brother while they played the tooth fairy for her.

“He’s right,” Genji said, his voice teasing, “They’re trickly little things!”

“Well ‘m little ‘n tricky too!” she said firmly, “Plus Rat’s taught me plenty ‘bout traps! I can do it!” She then pouted at them, “’N I worked really hard on this plan ‘n I only got seven more chances ta catch one!” she looked at her little white mary janes, “I at least gotta try…” she said softly.

Reinhardt gently patted her head, “It is very thoughtful of you to want to help us with the funding, but that is not something you should worry over. You being here and believing in us is enough.”

“It isn’t ta me.” She told him.

“Then maybe the Shimadas can help test out your trappin’ plan later.” McCree suggested, “I mean, they’re ninjas. If you can catch them, a tooth fairy shouldn’t be all that hard, right?”

Molly seemed to think about this for a moment before looking at them, “On one condition.” She said before running out of the room.

“Where are you going?” Zenyatta asked.

“Ta get th’ condition!” she said before slipping out.

A few minutes later she came back with a roll of tin foil and handed it to the elder Shimada, “Ya have ta wear this. Can’ hear yer thoughts with this on, th’ whoite coats at Hyde proved it.”

“They did, did they?” Winston asked, curious, “I only started the section where they were testing to see what could and couldn’t block your powers before going to bed last night, are you sure this is what worked?”

“Yup, it’s shoiny ‘n gets all wrinkly and crinkly when you use it.” she assured him, giving him a thumbs up.

“Hmm, we might need to do tests to make sure of that before we test your trap, would that be alright?” He asked her.

“After th’ party though, roight?” she asked.

“Of course.” He said with a nod.

“Okay.” She agreed before walking back over to Roadhog and getting back to work, her tongue no longer fiddling with the loose tooth now that she had to consider the results of all their tests and the time that might take to do it, but simply stickling out as it normally did as she worked.

The party eventually got back to almost as pleasant as it was before the suit showed up, Molly proudly finishing Roadhog’s nails, revealing them to be little pig faces, and beaming as he told her that he really liked it. She was about to help start Zenyatta’s nails when they all heard shouting coming from down the hall Symmetra, Rat, Pharah and the suit had vanished down earlier.

“Please stop shouting, I’d rather my mother’s birthday party to _not_ be ruined by petty bickering…” Pharah said firmly.

“I said she needs _SILENCE_ to work!” the suit shouted, “But this… _JUNKER_ still went in and bothered her in the middle of an important job..!”

“It wasn’ loike she actually had any work ta do.” They heard Junkrat say dismissively, “There weren’ no e-mail ‘n she checked with those blokes, there weren’t no changes or new deadloines or nothin’. ‘N since she didn’ have ta work, I don’ see how me askin’ if she knew where th’ present Molly made fer Nan’s birthday was in th’ workshop on me way back from Merc’s office was being disruptive or whatevah.”

“Her having no work isn’t the point!” the suit yelled, “I told you to leave her alone and you _disobeyed_.”

Rat let out a snort of laughter, “_Disobeyed_? Mate, in case ya haven’ noticed, we _Junkers_ ain’ ones ta listen ta authority. ‘N what makes you think I’d listen ta a drongo who ain’ even payin’ me? ‘Specially one who can’ even do ‘is own damn job?”

“Junkrat!” Symmetra warned.

“Vishkar provides most of the funding for Overwatch!” He snapped, “So we do, in fact, pay you!”

“But did ya hoire me?” Rat asked.

“Well, no, I certainly wouldn’t...” The suit admitted.

“Do you sign me checks?” He inquired.

“Well, no…” The suit said.

“Then I think you can get stuffed. She weren’ workin’, ‘n even if she was, me askin’ where a kid left a birthday present she worked hard ta make ain’ a bother ta ‘er, hell, if I didn’ ask, she’d of prob’ly offered ta help when I’d start lookin’. Tha’s jus’ th’ koinda sheila she is.”

And with that, the door opened and Junkrat walked into the room, holding a purple kangaroo squeaky toy and a neatly wrapped package. Molly got up, taking the bottle of black nail polish with her as she ran up to him, “Ya got it!” she said cheerfully as she gave him a hug, being careful not to give his ratty shorts another stain, “Thanks Rat!”

“Any toime.” He said as she released him and he happily handed her the package and squeezed the toy, making Bob rush over and bark happily, he bent down and gently tossed it towards him, the pup leaping for it and catching it in his mouth, his tail wagging like crazy as he let out a muffled bark and made it squeak.

“Cheers.” He said, giving the mutt a pat on the head, “Now go on, you go show off with th’ Cowboy.” He told him. But Bob stayed in his spot, his happy muffled barks turning into muffled growls as the suit stomped in and began jabbing at Rat’s kneeling form with a finger, “Now, you see here…!” he began, Pharah and Symmetra bursting through the door after him, Pharah looking annoyed and Symmetra looking panicked.

Rat scowled and stood to his full height, all of his nearly two meters towering over the suit, “I see someone who needs ta back off.” he warned, “I’ve been noice ‘cause ‘Metra’s been real good ta us, she’s even been helpin’ ta teach Molly how ta write ‘n spell.” He held out his left hand for him to look at the letters she had drawn on them, “But all you’ve done is made ‘n ass of yerself ‘n wreckin’ how I was startin’ ta see suits as thanks ta ‘Metra’s hard work. Now, I’ll be noice one last toime; _Bugger_. _Off_.”

The suit took a step back from him, his finger wilting back into his palm, unable to argue the taller man’s points and far too fearful of what he might do to say anymore. He turned, most likely as if to leave only to freeze in place, his scowl deepening and his eye becoming dark with anger.

“Vaswani. What is that _thief_ doing here?” he asked in a dangerous tone as he pointed to Lúcio. Satya looked panicked, hell, they all did.

“I invoited ‘im.” Molly volunteered, making the suit turn to her with a look that made Hog get up from his spot and made Bob drop his toy and start barking, “Ana loikes ‘is music ‘n he was gonna come over ta talk ‘bout a charity thingy with Hana anyways, so I asked ‘im ta come a day early ta surprise ‘er. ‘Metra didn’ know ‘e was comin’. But then again, she didn’ know you were comin’ neither so…” she shrugged, as if to say, ‘what can ya do?’

The suit turned his back on the child to look to Ana, who gave him an impish smile, “What, I can’t enjoy music made by a younger generation?”

“It has a wonderful beat!” Reinhardt agreed with a broad smile.

Molly smiled along with him for a moment before she made a startled face, her hand still holding the bottle of black nail polish, which was still open, just not twisted shut, and Ana’s present under that same arm she was holding the nail polish in while rubbing one of her temples with her now free hand, her eyes widening with what looked like shock as Lúcio got up from his seat and walked over to him, making sure to get right into his face, “Ana Amari helped hundreds of thousands of people during the first Omnic crisis, what kind of freedom fighter would I be if I couldn’t help celebrate another year of her helping people?” he asked coolly.

The suit scowled and pushed his elbows back, as if to push him away, only for his elbow to smack right into Molly’s face with a sickening crack. Her small body seeming to fall backwards in slow motion, red and black fluids spilling out from around her, a loud swallow followed by a pained cry echoing in the air as she finally landed, her hands covering her face as she landed and tears starting to fall down her cheeks.

Hog didn’t know how he got over there so fast, but he could tell you how easy it was to lift that shitty little suit off his feet and slam him against the wall. He heard Molly crying, he could hear everyone freaking out about the blood, he could hear Bob’s vicious barking at his feet, almost as if egging him on as he put more pressure on the man’s neck, the suit letting out a satisfyingly loud choking sound as his face started to go from red to purple.

He could then hear several people calling his name and Molly’s, telling him that this Sanjay Korpal wasn’t worth it, telling him that he needed to calm down, only for Torbjörn to gently pat at his leg, “Molly needs ya more than he does.” He reminded him. Roadhog let out a low growl at the suit, but dropped him, the bastard gasping for air and stroking his throat as his face went from purple to red again.

“Don’ let ‘im off easy.” He said firmly to his fellow father.

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” the Swede purred as he then looked down at Bob, “You don’ let ‘im out of your sight ‘til I give th’ okay.” Bob barked what seemed to be an affirmative before glaring and growling at the cowering executive.

After giving out orders, he passed them and gently pushed Junkrat, Symmetra, Pharah and Zarya out of the way to get a look at the damage, speaking soft words he wouldn’t remember later as he gently moved Molly’s hands away from her face.

Once he saw it, he had to suppress an urge to turn back around and crush that bastard’s skull in with his bare hands.

Her nose was bent at a painful looking angle and covered with blood that seemed to be coming out of her nose as well. Her lip was split and bleeding. The tooth she had been wiggling was gone and spot in her gums it had left behind was now bleeding too. She was crying and obviously in large amounts of pain as she quickly placed her hands back over her nose and mouth as soon as he’d gotten a good look at the damage.

The dress she seemed to like so much was now covered in specks of blood and was completely drenched in black nail polish on one side along, her white shoes splattered with crimson and black as well, the rest of the black nail polish was soaking into the carpet next to the fallen bottle, along with flecks of her blood. The present under her arm also seemed to have some black nail polish on it, but that was the least of his concerns as he gently pulled the present she had made and probably asked someone to help her wrap from under her arm and handed it to Pharah as Mercy came over with a towel from he didn’t really know where and wrapped her in it, almost like it was a trauma blanket.

He then carefully picked her up and followed Mercy out of the room and down the hall into her office. Silently swearing that if he ever saw that suit again, he was a dead man.


	26. Sanjay verses Molly

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ana is a miracle worker (but what else is new), Korpal tries to apologize and Molly reveals some of the Vishkar employee's shady bullshit.

A broken nose. A split lip. A knocked out tooth. A ruined dress. A sobbing child.

Not what she thought would happen today.

If anything, she figured it’d be a happy day. Junkrat was feeling better, Roadhog didn’t have to come in for treatments for his bullet wounds anymore and Molly and Hana had planned such a lovely party for Ana that included everyone, even the omnics, in on the fun.

But since when did life give that child a break?

Or any of them, for that matter?

The broken nose had to be dealt with first, Roadhog helped with that by managing to calm her down a bit by the time they got back to her office. She felt a sense of dread settle in her chest as she explained that fixing her nose would hurt, but she promised it wouldn’t hurt for very long and that she’d feel better soon.

Molly nodded with a sniffle and let out a pained cry when she snapped it back into place, then sobbed quietly as she apologized over and over and began starting up her machines to make the pain go away like she said she would, feeling guilty for making her suffer more before she could help her.

It didn’t take much, the broken nose and lip were easy fixes for her nanobiotic machines and when she turned it off, the child seemed to be in far better shape than she had been, but she carefully washed the blood away, just to be sure and was happy to see that her nose and lip looked the way they had been before Sanjay Korpal’s elbow slammed into her face.

But while the broken nose and the split lip were no problem, the missing tooth and the ruined dress and the tears were something that her machines couldn’t fix.

She’d asked Athena to relay the information about her missing tooth to the others so they could search, but asked if Ana could be excluded from the search so she could grab some clean clothes for Molly instead, knowing that an actual mother’s touch was needed here.

Ana arrived about fifteen minutes later, with something wrapped in a blanket that she said Roadhog wasn’t allowed to see before speaking to Molly in a soft voice as she lead her to the small bathroom off to the side of the office to change and clean up a little more, the seven year old sniffling all the way there while holding her hand.

Once the door was closed, Roadhog snarled out, “If I ever see tha’ fucker again, ‘m gonna kill ‘im. Ain’ gonna make it quick, either.”

“I doubt he’ll ever come here again, not after today.” She assured him.

“Who said ‘e’d havta be ‘ere?” he asked darkly, “If I ever see ‘im again, don’ matter where or what’s goin’ on, ‘m gonna kill ‘im.”

Angela felt shivers fly up her spine.

He would.

Just by the tone of his voice, she could tell that he really would.

And the scariest thing about it was that she honestly felt that it wouldn’t bother her very much if he did. Not because murder was an exceptable answer, but because she’d seen the look in his eyes through the lenses of his mask when he heard the crack and saw Molly fall backwards onto the ground, it was as if his whole world had been shattered… _again_, before the fury kicked in.

She felt something similar when she heard the sound, when she saw the child fall. Only, as a doctor, she knew that it would be best to make sure she felt somewhat safe (thus the towel) and to get her to her office as soon as possible. But it had taken her longer to find the towel than she would have liked, but she had found it, and it had helped a bit, both with comforting Molly and keeping the black polish from sticking to Roadhog’s bare chest…accenting the muscles as they moved.

She felt her cheeks heat up at the thought of it and shook her head, where did that come from? It’s just his chest. It’s not like it isn’t _always_ on full display… She felt her cheeks heat up again. ‘Stop it!’ she scolded herself before remembering that Roadhog was still glaring angrily at the door to the hall. She pushed her feelings aside and decided to try to calm him down would be the best thing to do right now.

“Well, then, I hope we never see him again.” She said honestly as she removed her bloody gloves, “And I certainly hope I don’t have to see her like that ever again.”

“You talkin’ ‘bout Molly or ‘Metra?” He asked.

“Both.” She sighed, “Molly’s broken nose was upsetting to see and fix, but seeing Satya being bullied like that by that man was frustrating. I knew they were controlling, but I’d never seen it in person. The way she took it was almost admirable, but we all _know_ he was lying and she_ still_ left to do the work!” She looked at him, “If Junkrat treated you like that Sanjay Korpal treated Satya, what would you do?”

“Rat knows better than tha’, ‘n ‘e’s always treated me loike a friend ‘n a partner in croime. Not loike a fuckin’ lackey.” He said defensively, but, after a deep breath, a soft apology and a moment to think, he finally replied, “Prob’ly punch ‘im so hard he’d go through a wall or two, it would hurt, but Rat would loive, ‘n ‘e’d get th’ point.”

“Satya can’t do that.” She said softly.

“Can’t or won’t?” he asked her, “’Cause she don’ seem loike th’ type tha’ is afraid ta stand up fer ‘erself…” he paused, “I mean, she prob’ly can’ punch ‘im through a wall, but I’ve heard tha’ those heeled shoes she wears all th’ toime hurt loike a bitch when slammed into th’ family jewels.”

“I’ve heard that too.” She said pleasantly, “And it really did seem to hurt when I did it.” He laughed at that, making it the first time he’d smiled since coming in here.

“When everything you’ve ever worked for is at stake, wouldn’t you be afraid?” she asked him when he stopped laughing.

“I already lost tha’.” He said with a shrug, “Managed ta do pretty well fer myself, considerin’. ‘N I was ‘lone ‘til Rat offered me a job few years back.” He spread out his arms, “Look at me now, in a fancy place loike this with a kid ‘n me best mate.” He paused, almost as if embarrassed. “Don’ tell Rat I called ‘im tha’. It’ll go to his head so damn fast he’ll be half way through killin’ himself in a stupid way ‘fore I can tell ‘im otherwise.”

Angela chuckled, imagining how happy and crazy Junkrat would get hearing that his best friend cared so much, “I’ll try.” She said, “But no promises.”

He let out a low grunt, which she took as his unhappy acceptance of her answer.

The bathroom door opened and Ana walked out with a small, clear garbage bag with the stained dress and shoes inside, “Winston and Mei offered to see if they could find a way to get the stains out, in the mean time, I think this dress is also very nice.” She smiled softly at the doorway and beckoned the child peeking around the door towards her with a gentle wave of her hand, “You look lovely, Molly, there is no need to be nervous.”

Molly finally walked out, bashfully, the dress was the same shade as her eyes, that looked up at them hopefully, her cowlicks slanting downwards, much like a pouting puppy would, her bare feet making light slapping sounds against the tiled floor of the bathroom as she walked.

Angela walked over and gently took her hands and spun her around, making her smile and laugh a bit, “I think it looks better on you now than it did at the store.” She agreed before looked to Roadhog.

“Very pretty.” He said with a nod, making Molly’s face turn pink and her cowlicks stick straight up, “T-thank you.” She stammered shyily, unable to keep eye contact with him as they curled back up again.

“Molly,” Ana said, holding out the slightly blackened present, “May I open this now?”

“It’s yer birthday.” She replied in a reserved voice, “Do you wanna open it now?”

“Yes.” She said.

“Then open it! Open it!” she urged, bouncing on her toes and waving her hands, making the three adults laugh at her antics as she carefully opened the parsel to reveal one of her scrap sculptures, only this one seemed to be of the Egyptain God Horus.

“Pharah said tha’ when you was in the Egyptain Army, ya had th’ codename ‘Horus’. Winston helped me look it up. ‘E’s th’ God of war ‘n one of th’ Gods of th’ sky. ‘N ‘is eye is a symbol of protection ‘n good health ‘n stuff, yeah?”

“Correct!” she said happily, pleased not only by her lovely work, but by her going so far as learning about her codenamesake, “As a sniper, it was my job to make sure that my fellow soldiers were safe from harm, so I’d take out anything in their way to keep them safe.”

“’N tha’s why they called you Horus?” she asked.

“That and I already had the tattoo, they couldn’t _not_ give me that codename after that!” she joked.

“Tha’s a tattoo?!” Molly asked, bewildered.

“What? Did you think Egyptains all had marks under their eyes?” Ana teased.

“Well, they looked loike they did in th’ old paintin’s…” Molly said, embarrassed, “‘N you ‘n Pharah are th’ only Egyptains I know ‘n ya both have marks under yer eyes, so I thought tha’ your Gods jus’ loiked ya so much, they put their marks on ya ‘n you got their powers.”

“No, but now I wish that was how I got this tattoo!” she laughed as she admired the statue, “What did you use to make the neck feathers?”

“Th’ thin clearish plastic tha’ goes ‘round Hana’s sodas.” Molly said, “I found a lot of them from th’ recyclin’ bin ‘n took ‘um off. Then I cut th’ ends, painted ‘um a bit ‘n taped ‘um on ‘fore I put th’ head on.”

Ana looked at the amount of ‘feathers’ on her present, then to Angela, “We _might _need to cut down on Hana’s soda supply.”

“I’ll run some tests.” She promised as the two talked about how she made it and about the ancient God himself. Angela felt a small smile crawl up her cheeks as she watched the little girl as she smiled and laughed as if nothing had happened.

They watched them go on like that for what was probably only a few minutes but felt blissfully longer before there was a knock on the door.

“It’s me.” Junkrat said, “Can I come in?”

“Yes!” She called back, the lanky blonde quickly slipping through the door, his expression grim.

“What’s wrong?” Ana asked.

“So, th’ suit wants ta say sorry ta Molls, I mean, even if ‘e don’ really wanna, we’d all prob’l make ‘im anyways. But ‘e don’ want me or Roadie there when ‘e talks to ‘er.”

“Tell ‘im ta get stuffed.” Roadhog replied immediately.

“I _did_!” He cried, annoyed, “_Twice!_ But ‘e said he was afraid you’d kill ‘im. I said, ‘can ya blame ‘im, ya smacked his kid in the face so hard ya broke ‘er nose ‘n knocked out ‘er tooth!’”

“Did you foind it yet?” Molly asked, “My tooth?”

He looked at her pitifully, “Sorry, no sign of it, love. We looked everywhere, even had Zarya, Reinhardt ‘n th’ ape lift up all th’ furniture ta try ta foind it, but it’s not there.”

“Molly.” Roadhog said, “When he hit you in th’ face, it sounded loike you swallowed something. Do ya remember what it was?”

She paused, thoughtful, her expression a bit pained as she tried to recall the unpleasant and painful moment, “I know that I tasted blood ‘n I think I did swallow somethin’ but I don’ know what it was, why?”

Angela looked at Ana and then to Junkrat, their expressions showing that they understood what Roadhog was getting at:

That Molly had been hit so hard in the face that she’d accidently swallowed her own tooth.

He motioned towards the door and the three of them quietly snuck out as he began talking to her in a soft voice, her expression confused.

Once they had closed the door behind them, they heard her shout, “I SWALLOWED IT?!” and then heard her start crying again.

“Poor thing.” Ana said softly, “Her plan to help us has just been ruined.”

“Plan?” Junkrat repeated, reminding the two women that he’d been out of the room when she told them her tooth fairy funding plan.

“Molly wanted to use that tooth to catch the tooth fairy and start a deal with her: Funding in exchange for Talon teeth. Once we’d scared them enough to stay in hiding, the UN would see how much we were needed and how good we are at problem solving and repeal the PETRAs act.”

“… Tha’s actually a pretty good plan, if ya don’ count th’ obvious problem.”

“That there is no tooth fairy here?” Ana asked, “Just ninjas?”

“I was gonna ask where th’ hell we’d foind a pillow tha’ big fer all those teeth, but yeah, tha’ too.” Junkrat said with a smile. The two let out half hearted chuckles before they died out as quickly as they came.

“You two ‘n Bob can keep ‘im from hurtin’ ‘er again, roight?” he asked them.

“Of course.” Ana replied, “But how are you going to get Roadhog out of there?”

“Easy. Tell ‘im ‘e should wash Molls’ blood off ‘im, tha’ it ain’ a good look.” He looked to the ceiling, “Athena can take it from there, lettin’ ‘im know when ‘e can go in, with Bob, ‘course.”

“Of course.” Angela agreed, “Roadhog _did_ tell him to keep an eye on him.”

“You two gotta promise me you’ll let me know if Bob does somethin’ to ‘im though.”

“Like what?”

“Pissin’ on ‘im of ‘course!” Junkrat said, “It’s why Genji ‘n I picked ‘im up, ‘cause ‘e took a leak on Widowmaker!”

Ana took this information with a thoughtful expression before turning towards Angela, “Remind me to give that dog a bone.” She said coolly.

“We will keep you informed.” Angela told Junkrat with a chuckle.

“Roight then.” he said with a clap of his hands. He leaned over towards the door and listened in, “She ain’ crying too hard, but she’s still cryin’. Rather not separate them now, but it’s prob’ly best ta jus’ get it over with, yeah?” The women nodded and he walked in and spoke to them for a second, his voice quiet until he said, “Nan ‘n Angel Wings got ‘er, come on, mate. Let’s get you cleaned up, think ya got some of tha’ nail polish on ya.”

They heard a grumble before Junkrat managed to gently led his friend into the hallway and motioned for them to go in as he said, “Okay, I _did_ lie ‘bout th’ nail polish, but ya got Molls’ blood all over ya! How’s she supposed ta forget ‘bout all this shite with th’ suit if yer walkin’ ‘round splattered in ‘er blood?” Roadhog seemed to consider this for a moment before sighing, “Foine. ‘N thanks fer not pointin’ out ‘er blood bein’ on me while we was in there.”

“What are mates for?” Junkrat smiled as he gave his friend a hearty slap on the back, “Tha’ reminds me. You show ‘er what’s under th’ mask yet?”

Roadhog picked up his pace, Junkrat quickly jogging after him, “I knew it! Ya still haven’ done it ya coward!” he cried, laughing madly as he chased his friend out of sight, “Yer in so much trouble!” his voice taunted before they couldn’t hear either Junker anymore.

The two women slipped back inside, Ana placing her present onto Angela’s desk and pulling something out of a drawer with a small smile on her face.

“Molly, do you mind if I play with your hair a bit?” she asked as she revealed a spare hair brush and some ponytail holders that Angela kept there for when she needed to perform emergency surgery at a moment’s notice and had to pull her hair back.

“N-no. Go ‘head...” She sniffled as she wiped at her face again, Ana gently picking her up and taking a seat on a nearby bed, the child sitting on her lap as she started to gently brush her hair, “You know, I used to do this with Fareeha when she was your age.”

“Y-you did?” she asked.

“Oh yes, whenever she visted here, Reinhardt would bring us flowers to decorate her hair with, then we’d have a tea party and talk about silly things...”

“W-what koinda silly things?” Molly asked.

“Hmm… Let’s see now…” The old sniper hummed before telling Molly stories about what she, Reinhardt and Fareeha would do together whenever Fareeha came up here to visit many years ago. Meanwhile, Angela began typing up a report, making sure it was clear as to what happened to make Molly need urgent medical attention, when she heard voices outside her door and, after checking to see that Molly was preoccupied with Ana’s stories, she tip toed to the door and pressed her ear against it.

“I only need to apologize to the child,” she heard a man say, “The Junker men won’t be there so, I don’t see why I need an entourage to go with me.”

She froze. That was Sanjay Korpal’s voice. He was close to her office. Very close. She suddenly wished that her office door didn’t slide open and instead opened outwards so she could dole out some payback with a good slam against the door.

She heard some chuckling, “You should never underestimate a child. They will always surprise you, trust me, I had seven and I have many grandchildren.” Torb said.

“But she doesn’t seem to be all that dangerous, unlike her father.” Angela clenched her fist, Roadhog was hardly dangerous unless working or if someone had harmed someone he cared for, like how Sanjay Korpal **_smacked his daughter in the face, for example_**.

“Just try to make sure you don’t put any bees in her bonnet, partner, or you’ll regret it. That kid can be way more dangerous than Hog or Rat when peeved.” Jesse chuckled, “Oh, and don’t rile up Angie neither. She can be just as protective of the kid as Hog.”

“I highly doubt either of them are truly as bad as you say,” Sanjay dismissed, “One of them is a simple child who probably still believes in the tooth fairy...”

“She’s _seven_.” Hanzo said defensively, “It’s not unusual for a child her age to believe in such things.”

“And as for the good doctor, while I know her to be a very talented medical professional, she’s not exactly a woman who strikes fear in the heart of many.” Sanjay continued, obviously ignoring Hanzo’s words.

Angela’s face contorted into a scowl, oh, she’d show him something to be afraid of!!!

She finally heard a knock on the door, “Who is it?” she asked, feigning a sweet tone.

“Sanjay Korpal, I’m here to apologize to Molly, I believe her name is?” Sanjay said behind the door.

“Just a moment!” She called as she took a joyfully slow walk back to her desk and continued her now very lengthy and detailed report until it was completed before saving it, since she planning to send it to his superiors with a recording from the moment Junkrat walked into the room to drop off the dog toy and the birthday present until the moment Sanjay Korpal smashed Molly’s face in later on after he left. She took her time closing the screen down and even straightened out her desk a bit before finally opening the door to see Sanjay Korpal, along with a growling Bob, Jesse, Hanzo and Torbjörn.

“He’s all yours, ladies.” Torbjörn said with a flourish of his metal hand, Bob snapping and snarling until he caught sight of his little mistress. Then he immediately began to bark happily, catching her attention as Ana finished with her hair; a small braid on one side, similar to how Fareeha’s hair was styled when she was Molly’s age.

“Bob!” she cried happily, as if she hadn’t seen him in years. Bob let out another happy bark, his tail wagging like crazy as he dashed towards her and she climbed down off of Ana’s lap to give him a hug. Molly squealing with laughter as he covered her face in doggie slobber.

“Umm…” the man began, only for Bob to quickly turn to him and snarl viciously and bark fiercely at him, making him cringe.

“Bob says ta wait your turn.” Molly said sternly before pointing to a chair in the far corner, “Wait there.”

The man obeyed, obviously uncomfortable as Molly and Bob continued their happy reunion for a few more minutes before she gave him a kiss on the head and said, “Alroight, back ta work, Bob!” She said. Bob immediately snarling at Sanjay again at her words.

“Your turn now.” Molly said. The man got up and sucked in a breath or two before he seemed to calm himself, his earlier attitude restored as he walked over, “How are you feeling?” he asked.

“You hit me so hard ya broke me nose , cut me lip open, made me swallow me tooth, ‘n wrecked one of me favorite fancy outfits, how do you think ‘m feelin’?” she asked plainly, making him wince and quickly rethink his plan.

“Perhaps we got off on the wrong foot. Let’s try again from the start, alright?” He held out his hands, “Hello, Molly, it’s nice to meet you, my name is Sanjay Korpal.” He then reached into his pocket and pulled out a business card, “My card.”

Molly rose an eyebrow at his hand and then let out a snort as she snatched the card from his hand and began fiddling with it for a minute or two, folding it almost like it was origami paper, when she seemed satisfied with it, she handed it back to him, revealing that she had folded it into the shape of a hand giving someone the finger.

Angela looked at it, uncertain if she should be angry for the rude gesture when someone was trying to be polite, or proud that she had done such skillful and unique origami in such a short period of time with such thick paper like the kind Sanjay’s business card was made from.

“How… _creative_…” he said, seeming to realize that winning this little junker over would be no easy task as he placed the odd origami on Angela’s desk and bent down to her level, deciding on a different tactic in an attempt to smooth things over, “My what lovely eyes you have!”

Molly stared at him for a moment, her eyes wide with caution, “I know this story, someone gets eaten ‘n it ain’ gonna be me!” She then ducked behind Bob, “Stay back! I’ve got a wolf ‘n I know where th’ foire axe is!”

Bob started growling more fiercly at him, although if he was playing the part or simply being very defensive of his little human, Angela couldn’t say.

Okay, she could. And it was probably both.

Ana stepped in, “Excuse me,” she said putting herself between Molly and Bob and Sanjay Korpal, “I don’t know what you are doing, but I don’t see a lot of the apologizing you said you would do and more making Molly more upset and uncomfortable. How about you say what you came here to say and be done with it.” she said sternly.

The man winced and looked down at Molly, “I am very sorry for hitting you in the face with my elbow, I didn’t mean to cause you any harm, but…”

“No buts!” Angela snapped from behind him as she stood up and jabbed at him with a finger, “You hit her. You broke her nose. You cut her lip. You smacked her so hard you not only knocked out her tooth, but you made her swallow it. Do you know how much damage and pain you put her through? Well, _do you_?!”

Sanjay looked a bit taken a back before putting on a sheepish face, “It was not my intention and I do plan to make it up to her…”

“How?” Molly asked, making him brighten with hope. He was probably thinking that, as a Junker and a child, she could easily be bribed. Angela felt a small, cruel smile curl up her lips, and was happy to see a similar expression on Ana’s face as the two women watched the negotations begin.

“Well, I planned to buy you a new dress to make up for the one I ruined...” he said with a smile.

“Don’ wanna new one.” She said, making his smile droop before it perked up again.

“… Okay, well, I could buy you a doll or a stuffed toy…” he offered.

“No. I don’ want one from you.” She said firmly, giving him a disgusted look, “It would prob’ly have a camera inside or somethin’ creepy loike tha’.”

“Ice cream?” he tried, “Cake?”

“You crashed a _Birthday_ bash, ya drongo. We already have tha’.” She said, her cowlicks becoming wavy with annoyance.

“Well, how could I make it up to you, then?” he asked, giving up far too quickly if you asked either of the women in the room.

“By ‘pologizin’ ta ‘Metra fer callin’ ‘er a retard.” Molly said sternly. Angela’s face swirled into a frightening scowl as soon as the words left her mouth and ‘Mama Bear’ Ana Amari looked just as furious as she did at this information, maybe even more so.

“I-I have never called her…” He began nervously.

“Cut th’ crap!” She snapped with a wave of her arm towards him, Bob letting out a vicious bark at the same time, making him jerk backwards a bit, “I know you did! I know everythin’ you said tha’ day ‘n if you don’ say you’re sorry to ‘er then ‘m tellin’ everyone ‘ere everything you said tha’ day!”

The man’s eyes became dark, his expression going from nervous to dangerous, “Are you threatening me, Molly?” he hissed.

“No, ‘m _tellin’_ ya, if you don’ say yer sorry, then I’ll tell everyone here everything you said to th’ blue lady ‘n ‘er friends!” She shouted, glaring angrily at him, “Da’ ‘n Rat only’ve been workin’ together fer a couple years, but Rat would never talk ‘bout Da’ loike tha’! You ‘n ‘Metra work with each other fer way longer ‘n you talk ‘bout ‘er loike tha’ behind ‘er back?” she then turned her head away from him, disgusted as she spat that, “‘Metra’s better off without ya.”

“_Excuse you_?” Sanjay snarled, taking a few steps closer and ignoring Bob’s blood thirsty warning barks and the dog slobber that was now speckling his slacks.

“You heard me.” Molly said, turning back around, her small figure puffed out as big as she could make herself, “She’s th’ one with th’ talent, she’s th’ one with th’ skills, ‘n she’s th’ doin’ all th’ work. Without ‘er, yer nothin’! _Nobody_!”

Sanjay winced before his angry expression slowly melted into an impish one, “A Nobody, huh?” he said lightly as he looked at his nails, “Your father, on the other hand, is infamous for his crimes.”

“Crimes?” Molly repeated, insulted, “Da’s a hero! Tha’s why ‘e works ‘ere!”

“Your father is a mercenary, a gun for hire.” He corrected.

“’E still works ‘ere!” Molly argued.

“For a price.” Sanjay purred.

“_You_ get paid at yer job! Why shouldn’ ‘e?! At least he does somethin’ ta _earn_ what ‘e gets!” Molly snapped.

“Earn? Is that what he told you?” He chuckled darkly, “So he didn’t tell you about his and ‘Junkrat’’s crime spree across the world? Stealing, Killing, Blowing things up…”

Molly looked a bit hurt, but quickly shook it off and hissed, “What do you expect?! Tha’s how we have ta loive in Junkertown! We don’ have things loike clean drinkin’ water or food or medicine ‘n people don’ hire Junkers fer anything honest or fer very much. So, yeah...” She looked down at her bare feet, her whole body shaking, “We ain’ got no other choices. We gotta steal. We gotta blow stuff up. We gotta kill. It ain’ roight, I know, but ya gotta do what you gotta to survive in Oz.” She wiped at her face before glaring defiantly up at him, “So what ‘bout it?”

“Well, I was thinking that, a child like you shouldn’t be in the custody of a well known killer.” He said lightly, “It might be better to have you sent to one of our academies…”

Molly staggered a bit, as if he had hit her again, as her mind processed exactly what that would mean: That she would be trapped in another hellish prison and she’d never be able to see any of them ever again, if he could help it.

Angela stepped in front of her, defensive, “That is enough! You have no right to take her from her father!”

“No, but child services does.” He said, looking like the cat who ate the canary, the fish and it’s owner’s steak dinner as he peered down at Molly over his fingernails, “I wonder how fast they would drag you out of here if they knew who was _really _looking after you…”

“You _fuckin’_…” Molly growled, Angela quickly bending down and gently placing her hands on her shoulders, her back to Sanjay as if to both hold her back and protect her as she scolded her foul language with a sharp, “_Molly_!”

“Children, _behave_!” Ana ordered, stepping between them, her one eye stormy as she looked from Molly, to Sanjay and back again, her expression grim.

Molly scowled at Sanjay, Bob starting to lunge towards at the man, making Angela have to let go of Molly hold the pup back. All while Sanjay looked down at the child with a smug look on his face…

Until Ana looked at Molly, “This ‘blue lady’, did she have a spider tattoo on her back?”

Molly seemed a bit surprised, then nodded, “Yeah. She had somethin’ written on ‘er arm too, but it was all French ta me.”

“Did you see anyone else from Talon?” Ana asked.

“Yeah!” She said, looking happy that she believed her, “Tha’ Sombra lady, Reaper, th’ witch, Doomfist ‘n a few others I never seen ‘fore!”

“And you’re sure he was in the room with them?” Ana asked.

Molly nodded vigorously, “’E was braggin’ to ‘um ‘bout how all ‘e needed ta do ta steal some weapon from us is ta tell ‘Metra tha’ stealin’ it for Vishkar was ‘fer th’ greater good’ or tha’ they could use it ta help people, just how he got ‘er ta go into th’ Calado buildin’ ta see if she could find anythin’ ta make Calado out fer being shady ‘fore Vishkar blew it up ta pressure th’ Mayor of Rio ta pick Vishkar ta redevelop th’ slums!” she blurted, happily pointing an accusatory finger at Sanjay, who now looked as if he was the cat who was close to choking on that steak dinner he swiped.

Good. Angela hoped he choked on it as she silently processed Molly’s words.

So, Sanjay had somehow convinced Satya to go into the Calado building to find evidence of bad behaviour to help get this contract from Rio’s Mayor. Once she confirmed that she had found nothing, Vishkar blew up the building and nearly got her and so many other innocent people killed.

She found herself shaking with rage for all those people who Vishkar had hurt, including her friend who was both so faithful to them and so fearful of what they would do if she simply followed her heart… Wait…

W-was Rio the only time this had happened? She felt her stomach twist as she pictured all those lovely buildings Satya had shown her, ones that she had designed and crafted to be the best anyone could ever ask for, sitting on the bodies of the many people they had to get rid of ‘for the greater good’ in order to make them.

She felt as if she was going to be sick.

Sanjay looked as if he was about to piss himself as Ana’s face went from livid to amused, Molly smiling victoriously at him.

“Athena, can you ask Jack and Winston to come down to the conference room, please? I believe we just received some very interesting data involving Talon.” She purred.

“Of course, Captain Amari.” The AI said.

“Thank you, Athena.” She said before walking past Sanjay and towards the door and called for the three men waiting outside to come in, the man trembling as he looked to Angela, his eyes searching for someone to save him and knowing the men who brought him here wouldn’t care less about detaining him for interrogation.

“Dr. Zielger, these accusations are all _lies_. This _child_ is a _Junker_. All they do is lie, steal, kill and destroy! You can’t seriously believe this pack of vicious lies!”

Angela looked down at Molly, who was staring up at her as if she was silently hoping that she would believe her too. She smiled warmly at her and hugged her tightly before turning to look at the Vishkar man in front of her, her eyes fierce with maternal protective instincts towards the little girl whose arms wrapped around her chest, relieved that she believed her, “I believe in Molly far more than the man who was too stupid to figure out that the weapon he’s been sent here to find has been in front of him the whole time.” Molly peeked out from her embrace and gave him a gleeful middle finger.

“There is no way the weapon is her! She’s a child, and…” Sanjay stopped halfway through his rant whne Molly shoved her hand out towards him, as if pushing him away, making him suddenly fly backwards towards the door, his feet dragging uselessly beneath him as he was pushed right into McCree and Hanzo’s arms.

“Thanks fer th’ assist, Molly.” McCree said with a tip of his hat to her. Molly smiled and waved, “Bye! Have fun interrogatin’ him!”

Sanjay began shouting how ‘this was an outrage’ and how ‘that brat set me up’, etc. Etc. As the two men pulled him out of Angela’s office.

“Oh, we will.” Ana purred as she walked out with them, “A spa day, a lovely statue and a chance to interrogate a Talon higher up,” She looked back into the room, looking as cool and composed as she usually did with a warm smile on her face, “This party has been one of the most fun ones I’ve had in years!” she said, absolutely delighted as she then led the way down the hall, Torbjörn chuckling beside her and McCree and Hanzo dragged the prisoner behind them, snickering darkly.

“Oi, th’ fuck happened ‘ere?” they heard Junkrat ask before hearing the odd step-click sound he made when he ran and finally saw him as he peeked his head into the doorway, “Did we miss all th’ fun?”

“No,” Angela assured him as she let Molly go, the child running over towards her dad, who was now nice, clean and blood-free as he joined his partner in crime in the doorway, and her uncle, her loyal dog right behind her, “The real fun happens _during_ the interrogation.” She informed them.

“Ya think we can have Athena project it in the common room fer all ta see?” Molly asked excitedly. Junkrat looking impishly eager at the suggestion.

“I think that, for the sake of the _good_ Vishkar employee in the building, we should spare her from that.” Angela said as Roadhog scooped her up, asking in a soft tone if she was alright. Junkrat nodded in agreement at the same time that Molly did as she proudly told her Dad that, “I got ‘im, Da’!”

“Well, the party is still going on.” Junkrat said as he motioned back towards the common room, “Shall we?” he asked.

“I think that would be nice.” She said truthfully with a large smile on her face, “I am curious to see what Zenyatta, Genji and Satya picked out.”

“Let’s go, then!” Molly said cheerfully before pointing towards the direction of the common room, her dad gently placing her so she was hanging off his neck as he moved forwards.

“WEEEEE!” she cried, making them chuckle before they started making their way back to the party.


	27. Time will tell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Special Tracer Chapter

Lena felt it coming again. The surge.

She was going to vanish again. She felt tears fall down her face and watched as they fell to the ground, only to go right through it. Who knew where she’d end up or when she’d end up. She’d seen some horrible things while popping in and out of time. 

It had all started in that stupid ‘Slipstream’, the teleporter going mad and her suddenly feeling a surge through her body before she ended up in an icy no man’s land in the middle of a bloody blizzard. 

But, she hardly felt cold.

At first she figured that, due to her gear being made to withstand the cool temperatures in the upper atmosphere, it might be the reason. But after walking through the snow for what felt like hours, she turned to see how far she’d gone and realized something that made her blood feel as cold as ice;

She hadn’t left any foot prints in the snow, and while the storm was quite bad, she should still be able to see at least what direction she came from. 

After that she put together that, while she was in a time period and in a place, she couldn’t touch anything. People could see and hear her sometimes, but only for an instant.

She was a flickering ghost to the world. 

And she was going to flicker again into another time and another place. She felt her chest ache as she started to cry.

She wanted to go home. 

She missed her friends, her family, her life. She never wanted to be held in a tight embrace more in her entire life. To feel the warmth of another person without them walking through her and freaking out and running off, screaming about a weirdly dressed ghost. 

She continued to cry as the world shifted around her, colors, sights and sounds changing, but all she could hear was the sound of her pitiful, lonely wailing.

Until she heard someone call her name.

“Lena?” 

She turned and saw a small old woman with two cowlicks sticking straight up on her head look at her with wide, violet eyes before dashing to a nearby table, snatching something with a blue glowing light and strapping it to her chest so fast that Lena, who was a track champ for most of her life and was good at getting things done quickly, wondered how the hell it was humanly possible that she got it on so fast.

At that moment, she suddenly felt solid again, like the weight of the world swallowed her and she soaked back into existence. Like she was back to the way she was before she got into that damn plane. 

The old woman let out a sigh of relief, the cowlicks curling into a heart shape, “I thought I was goin’ ta miss ya for a second there!” She said, revealing that she had an Australian accent, before she gave her a big, slightly jagged smile and a small pat on the back,, “Well, ‘m glad I gotcha anyways. Not sure how long th’ charge’ll last, th’ old thing ain’ what she used ta be, but it’ll probably be enough for you ta have a noice cuppa tea ‘n a snack ‘fore it needs chargin’ again.” 

The old woman began gently guiding her towards the nearest with a warm arm against the small of her back, “But no worries! I always keep your favorite, Earl Grey, in th’ kitchen. Oh ‘n I got some tasty biscuits tha’ one of me pilots picked up from King’s Row. A taste of home will do ya wonders!” She assured her.

Lena looked her up and down, touched at the fact that this person knew her and was able to bring her back to… wait. What year is it? And where was she?

And know that she thought about it, did she know someone with purple eyes, weird cowlicks and an Australian accent? Would she know someone like that in the future? 

Well, considering the confusing aspects of time travel and her sudden return to a physical plane of existence, she decided the only way to find out was to ask.

“Do… do I know you?” she asked nervously.

“Not yet, love.” The old woman said gently, “I met ya way after ya stopped hopscotching through toime.”

“Oh, then what year is it?” she asked her, the old woman looked thoughtful at this before finally replying that, “I don’ think it’d be wise ta give ya th’ year, toime space ‘n all tha’.”

“Oh…” she said softly.

“No worries, love, talkin’ ‘bout th’ future you can change is off loimits, howevah,” the old woman’s eyes twinkled with mischief, “Tellin’ ya ‘bout stuff you can’ change should be foine. You’ve been bouncin’ through toime enough tha’ no one would question how ya know.” 

She smiled as they walked down a corridor, unable to shake this feeling of Deja Vu. Had she been here before? 

She glanced around, searching for a sign when she found it. A small blast mark on the ceiling.

“Are we in Overwatch’s Gibraltar base?” she asked. The old woman smiled, obviously pleased that she recognized it, although it’d be hard for her not to. She’d made that mark when she met Genji Shimada, a cyborg ninja who had scared the living hell out of her and made her shoot the ceiling while she was getting a tour from a Jesse McCree of Blackwatch. The two of them had found it hilarious. She and their boss, Gabriel Reyes, had not.

“Didn’ think ya’d catch on this quick. Thought ya’d need a bit more toime adjustin’.” She then opened the door to the kitchen for her, “Yes, we’re in th’ Gibraltar base. It’s been through more than one face loift since you last seen it, but…” the woman looked around the halls her eyes warm as she seemed to be lost to old memories for a moment, “in many ways, it hasn’ changed one a bit.”

“How long have you been here?” she asked the old woman as she glanced around the kitchen. It had a few new things on the counters that she doubted she would ever know the function of and watched as she turned on the stove and grabbed a nearby kettle and walked over to the sink, the woman’s face thoughtful, “I came here when I was seven. You flew me ‘ere with me Da’, me Mum, me Uncle, me aunt, Fareeha ‘n Good old Reinhardt for medical treatment.” 

Lena smiled at the mention of Reinhardt’s name, the old German’s loud laughter and kindness instantly popping into mind. Fareeha, if she remembered correctly, was Captain Ana Amari’s daughter. Her smile grew at the thought of how proud her mother would be that her daughter had followed in her footsteps.

“Oh, Ana was pissed when she found out tha’ Fareeha joined. But she accepted it in the end.” The woman recalled, as if she had read her thoughts as she took the filled kettle from the sink and put it on to boil. She then grabbed a few mugs from a nearby cabinet, placed them on the counter and walked towards the pantry. 

“And Reinhardt?” she asked.

“Oh, he was on Fareeha’s soide. Said there was nothin’ wrong with ‘er wantin’ ta do somethin’ tha’ brought ‘er closer ta ‘er Mum.”

“Well, Ana could’ve said no, though, she was high ‘nough in th’ chain of command.”

“Ah, ‘ere’s th’ thin’, though.” she said as she brought a box of Earl Grey and a box of her favorite biscuits from back home, “She wasn’ exactly in Overwatch when Fareeha joined.”

“Loike retirement?” she asked, “’Cause I’m sorry, I can’t see Captain Ana Amari stepping down from ‘er spot unless she was dead!”

“…” The woman gave her an apologetic expression. 

“Toime space thingy?” Lena sighed, a little annoyed that she wasn’t allowed to know the juicy details, but realizing that the woman’s hands were probably tied on this matter and decided not to press.

“Winston was very clear ‘bout what I could ‘n could not say ta ya.” She made an annoyed face, “Was a huge pain in th’ arse ‘bout it, now tha’ I ‘member it…”

“Sorry about that.” she said, but the old woman waved her off as she motioned for her to take a seat at a prep table that hadn’t been there when she had visited whenever she had, and sat down in a bar stool on one side while the old woman opened the biscuits and poured them onto a plate and placed it in front of her, “Marmalade?” she asked.

“Please!” she said excitedly, with all that time hopping she did, she had no idea when she’d last eaten and was pretty hungry. Biscuits, marmalade and Earl Grey was a welcomed treat for her stomach as well as her soul.

The woman brought back two butter knives and two jars, one orange, one red, “Strawberry jam.” the woman said sheepishly, “I’ve had a weakness ta it fer as long as I can remember.” Lena waved her hand, as if to tell her it was no big deal as the kettle began to sing. The woman poured the hot water into the mugs and pulled some milk and sugar from the fridge and another cabinet and quickly made it up before bringing her mug over.

“I also put a little lemon in there, jus’ how you loike it.” she said with a chuckle.

“Thanks!” she exclaimed as she took a sip. She really wanted to chug it down, but it was still too hot for that, so she decided to give it a little more time to cool while helping herself to a biscuit.

“So, I never got your name.” Lena said as she applied a large blob of marmalade to her biscuit and began spreading it out.

“Ah, Molly. Molly Rutledge.” she said, holding out her hand to shake. Lena shoved her food into her mouth and took it with both hands and gave it a shake as she chewed, making the old woman laugh at her antics. 

Once she swallowed she happily took another sip and began lathering another biscuit in orange goop when she noticed Molly looking at her funny, as if she was happy, like she was seeing her old best friend over for a visit, but she could see a tinge of bittersweet and loneliness in her eyes.

“Something wrong?” she asked.

“No, it’s jus’…” she saw the old woman blink back some tears as she continued on to say that, “It’s jus’ been a long toime since one of you lot were home. It’s noice havin’ ya back, Lena. Even if we don’ know fer how long…” she shook her head, “Tha’s not a way ta be thinkin’, sorry…” 

“It’s fine!” she insisted, “I’m glad I’m here too!” she looked around the kitchen.

Home. Molly called this place her home. She wondered how long this was her home, was Molly’s home, was Winston’s home… Who else lived here with her? Did she ever marry, have a family? She had so many questions she wanted to ask about her life here…

But Lena swallowed the questions back with a biscuit and another sip of tea.

This woman, Molly, said that she had flown her here with her family when the old woman was only seven years old, she guessed this was after Winston had found a way to help her (possibly with the device the old woman had strapped to her when she appeared here). But still Molly wasn’t a little girl anymore, she was an old woman. How many people had she loved here that left her behind due to age or battle? How long had it been since she’d last seen Lena?

Lena wasn’t sure if she wanted to know the answers to that. 

“It’s been a very long toime.” Molly answered anyway, her voice thick with emotion, “It’s not loike I don’ have people I love ‘ere with me now, ‘m gettin’ more ta love more every day, fer bettah or worse… It’s jus’…” she looked at her, tears welling in her eyes and starting to spill down her cheeks, “You lot were…_are_ me family. I miss you all so much. It’s hard ta think ‘bout how much I miss ya when I’ve got so many others ta consider now. I guess, with you bein’ ‘ere, it’s hard not ta think ‘bout you all…” She let out a bitter chuckle as she wiped at her face, “But look who ‘m talkin’ to. You more than anyone else know how cruel toime can be when it comes to those ya love ‘n ‘m sorry fer makin’ ya listen ta me blubber loike this when you’ve prob’ly dealt with worse.”

Lena felt her own eyes begin to water as she shook her head.

The loneliness, the cold, wanting to reach out but never being able to touch anyone or anything. This woman’s memories of her and everyone else here with them when she first got here were like how she had been since ‘Slipstream’s malfunction. Only, unlike this woman, she would have a chance to see them again, to touch, to laugh. But Molly never would, she only had her memories, and even the most vivid ones would fade over time. She quietly prayed that the ones she loved now were just as good to her as those she had loved along with her back then.

She got up from her seat and hugged the old woman tightly, “Thank you!” she sobbed, “Thank you fer bringin’ me ‘ere! For being with me! I know exactly how you feel! It’s so lonely it hurts! It hurts so much!” She felt the woman’s arms wrap around her and give her a gentle squeeze as they both cried for the people who they loved and missed.

After a little while, they calmed down and resumed their tea and snacks with sniffles and a little bit of hiccuping. Once Lena’s belly was full, the device on her chest began flashing.

“Shite!” Molly hissed as she dashed to her side and began inspecting it.

“How long I got?” she asked softly.

“A couple of minutes.” the old woman hissed, frustrated, before looking up at her, upset, “’M so sorry, Lena, I wanted this to be far more pleasant than it was…”

“No.” Lena said, placing at hand on her shoulder, “It’s noice ta know that someone understands how it feels without this thing. And it’s not like I won’t get ta have tons of fun with ya after this!”

Molly laughed, “Guess tha’s true, but still…” she then paused and an impish grin, “I’ll be roight back!” she said, dashing out the door and leaving Lena alone, confused and a bit lonely.

When she came back with an old picture, she looked at her funny, “Is that fer me?”

“Well, fer ya ta look at.” she said, “I don’t think it’ll go with ya, no offense.” Lena held up her hand then looked at the back of the photo, written there was her name, followed by heart and then the name Emily.

“Whose Emily?” she asked.

“Yer _wife_.” Molly smirked.

“I thought you said Winston was really strict about what you could and could not show me?” Lena squeaked nervously.

“I did ‘n ‘e was.” Molly said, “If ‘e ever found out, ‘e’d kill me.” 

Lena looked at her, panicked.

“Oh, calm down, ‘e never foinds out, or if ‘e does, ‘e’s too ‘fraid of me parents ta ever try ta kill me.” Molly said dismissively as she showed her the photo anyways.

Lena gasped.

In the photo, next to her was the most beautiful woman she’d ever seen. Gorgeous red hair, beautiful eyes, cute freckles, beautiful smile…

Lena felt her face burn as she admired the goddess laughing in her arms as she held her in her own.

“Yes, ya hit tha’.” Molly said, “Ya married tha’. Ya adopted a kid ‘n Christ knows how many pets with tha’. ‘N ya grew old with tha’.”

“But… but what do I even say ta ‘er when I meet ‘er?!” she cried, “I mean, just look at her!”

“Say what you say whenever you see a familiar face.” Molly said with a shrug.

Lena looked up at her, pleading for something better than that.

“What was th’ foirst thing you thought when I took ya out of me office?” Molly asked her.

She paused then looked up at her nervously, “You ever get tha’ feelin’ of Deja Vu?” she asked.

The old woman smiled broadly, “Every toime ya say tha’.” she replied warmily. 

The blinking increased and the old woman gently patted her shoulder, “I’ll see ya soon ‘nough, Lena.” she promised.

“Lookin’ forward to it!” she laughed as the device went dark and she felt the surge start up again and the background faded away. She felt the device sink through her before she vanished. 

Only to reappear by her best friend, who was slumped over and crying while holding the picture she had taken of the two of them when they first met with her old polaroid camera. 

“Why?” he sobbed, “Why can’t we find you?! You can’t of just disappeared without a trace! It’s not possible! You have to be somewhere!”

“More loike, some_when_.” She corrected softly. Winston froze and turned around, his eyes wide and red behind his glasses.

“L-Lena?” Winston sniffled, getting up from his spot and reaching for her only for his hand to go through her.

“Cheers, love.” She said tears filling her eyes as she took his hand as best she could and gave him a big smile, “I finally found the calvary.”

Eight years later, Lena entered a pub not to far from her place in King’s Cross, her stomach growling. 

She was on leave after another job well done and had just gotten back today, so she had nothing in her fridge and the smells coming from this place had been too good to resist. She glanced around the bar, looking for an open seat when she spotted one next to someone with red hair.

“’Scuse me.” she said, “Anyone sittin’ there?”

The woman turned to her and Lena’s cheeks immediately began to burn.

It was the woman from the photo, Emily, 

And she was far prettier in real time.

“Oh, no, no one is sitting there.” she said, motioning for her to take it. Lena did, unable to hide her shock and disbelief that she’d found her in a random pub. She’d tried dating sites, google searches (only having her first name didn’t really help, but she still tried) and so many other things, only to find her while getting a bite to eat. 

“Is something wrong?” The woman asked her.

“No!” she blurted, then felt her cheeks go from pink to red with embarrassment. ‘Real smooth, Lena, real smooth.’ she thought, ‘Molly told ya all that just for you to screw it all…’ she stopped, remembering the advice she had been given before she vanished back into the time stream.

She looked at the woman, still a bit embarrassed, but far more relaxed now, “It’s just… well… You ever get that feelin’ of Deja Vu?” she asked her.

A few more years later, Lena sat in the cock pit, waiting for the others to arrive back with the weapon Talon was buying from Hyde, smiling as her girlfriend ended the call with a yawn and a ‘Love you, Lena.’

The Recall made their relationship far more long distance than she would have liked, but they still made it work some how and she was grateful for it. And she was grateful for all the new faces and old who had also answered the recall, they all seemed nice, albeit she found the bigger Junker they hired, Roadhog, to be fucking terrifying. But he kept the smaller one, Junkrat, a friendly and slightly nuts explosive expert with a tendency to catch on fire a little too much, under control and they were both great guys to have on your side. They’d saved her last week when a rogue omnic pushed her off a cliff, Roadhog using his hooked chain to yank her back up and making sure she was alright, while Junkrat blasted the fleeing omnic, along with several others coming towards them, with a simple jump on a land mine of his and a few happily tossed grenades.

Remembering their thick Australian accents made her mind drift back to the old woman, Molly. She wondered when she’d get to see her again. It had been so long ago… or was it so far in the future?

Ugh, time traveler problems.

Her thoughts on this time conundrum was interrupted by a call from Symmetra, one of the other new faces they’d gained thanks to the recall. A Vishkar architect who could make tons of interesting things with just a few flicks of her fingers. She could be a bit cold, but Lena had befriended colder so she wasn’t too bothered by it.

“Tracer, we have the weapon, but there is a complication…” She informed her.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

She heard the Vishkar sigh, “I- It’s difficult to explain.”

“No it ain’.” Junkrat said plainly, “The explainin’ ain’ th’ hard part, it’s believin’ it.”

“Try me, loves.” she challenged as she leaned back in her chair and opened her thermos, “I’ve been in Overwatch for years and I’ve been adrift in the toime stream for God knows how long. I doubt there is anything you can say that’ll shock me.” she said before taking a sip.

“The weapon’s a kid.” Roadhog said plainly, making her spit spray her tea all over the front window and start choking, Junkrat laughing hysterically in the background.

“Okay..” she coughed, “_That_ shocked me.” 

“We’re approaching the ORCA, can you set up a connection with Winston so we can pass along the news?” Symmetra asked.

“Can do!” she said, “See ya in a bit!”

“Understood, Symmetra out.”

A few minutes later she heard the door open and she hopped out of the cock pit, curious to see what a human weapon looked like.

She looked like a tiny little girl sitting on Junkrat’s shoulders with a dirty, blood stained dress, two cowlicks and… 

_violet eyes_.

She approached the little girl carefully, her eyes wide and her voice a bit warped with shock, “’Ello there.” she said, feeling a smile curl up her cheeks at the child, “You ever get tha’ feelin’ of Deja Vu, love?” she asked her.

The little girl tilted her head, her cowlicks mirroring her eyebrows in a confused tilt, but she still gave her a vivid smile not too unlike the old woman’s from all those years go. 

Lena felt her smile grow bigger. She had said that she’d have fun with her when she saw her again, and she was going to keep that promise.

“Oi, Rat, while we’re waiting for the others, wanna teach her how to slam dunk?” she asked, pointing to the little girl on his shoulders. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is kind of a one shot I wanted to add to the story, a short story of Lena meeting Molly for the first time (and future Molly seeing her for the last time) and then Molly meeting Lena for the first time.   
And yes, Old Molly is a little shit and broke the one of the many rules of dealing with time travelers by giving spoilers to the traveler.   
Winston found about what happened and WAS very clear to young Molly about what she could and COULD NOT say to Lena if she ever showed up without her chrono-excelotator (sp?) on.   
And younger Molly is/was good about that, but Old Molly is a wrinkly old lady when Lena first shows up and Winston's an adult when Molly is a little kid. He's not around anymore to scold her about it and it's not like he can scold her in the past for something she hasn't done yet, so she was like 'Fuck it. 'M tellin' 'er. Moight as well give 'er somethin' ta look forward to.'


	28. Distractions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rat decides that Hog, Molly and Symmetra could use a distraction. Luckily, he has a few ideas about how to do that.

Mercy told Rat what happened in her office while he had been escorting Hog to a shower. Upon hearing what the suit had called Satya in front of those Talon bastards and how he had threatened to blab Roadhog’s real identity to child services and make sure that Molly was shipped to one of Vishkar’s shitty little suit schools, he nearly grabbed his R.I.P. tire and took it to the conference room to blow that shitty suit sky high, but Mercy pleaded with him not to.

“If Satya finds out, she’ll want to know _why_ you did that.” She reminded him, “Do you really want to be the one who tells her about that?”

He scowled and glared at the floor, “No…” he admitted bitterly. She gently patted him on the back, “Ana wasn’t happy to hear that he called her that either, she’ll make him suffer for it.”

“Cause only th’ birthday girl is allowed to today.” He complained.

Mercy gave him a knowing smile, “Well, think about it, Junkrat, with Ana interrogating her boss, it means Satya is going to need to be _distracted_.”

He stopped, the gears in his head spinning like mad as a smile started curling up his lips, “Are you sayin’ what I think yer sayin’?” he asked her.

“_Maybe_…” she replied playfully, “I mean, you haven’t had a chance to get Molly a birthday present yet, have you?”

“Nope.” He said, his voice eager and chipper, “But I’d need someone ta watch me since ‘m still recoverin’, roight?”

Mercy nodded, her smile wide.

“Well, got any recommendations, Doc?” he asked her.

“Perhaps you should ask Satya, she took plenty of pictures of things Molly seemed interested in with her phone and would probably remember where each thing is.”

He let out a cackle, “Sounds good ta me, I’ll ask her when we get back ta th’ party!”

“Well aren’t you confident?” she teased as she walked on ahead to join Molly, Hog and Bob.

Why wouldn’t he be confident? He knew his affections were not one sided and that getting her out of here for a bit would be good for her, not only to get away from her shitty boss, but to just have some time away from work, to enjoy herself outside the base without being held at gun point again…

That reminded him, he would need to work on making sure Molly would be able to do that too. Maybe he’d ask if she and Hana needed help for the Halloween costumes they’d been getting ready for everyone, after all he doubted they’d let him go on active duty for a bit and he was itching for some work to do. Making something to help his little niece not get hunted down by freaks while enjoying some time off base seemed like a good way to spend all his now free time. It was a good thing he knew not only how to make magic out of spare parts and junk with a few tools and tons of ingenuity, but that he also knew how to sew.

It was helpful for whenever he or Hog’s clothes tore or started to fray and many more... illegal purposes… And Hog couldn’t sew because his fingers were far too big, he often broke the needle in his powerful hands and it was hard for him to see what he was doing too well with his mask on.

Also, if he got to help with costumes, maybe he could see why Molly and Hana were giggling so much whenever he asked how they were going… (Please let him and Satya be matching, please let him and Satya be matching!!)

He decided to talk to Pipsqueak about that when he got back to the party too, offer his services up for the task, hell, they might ask him to grab more materials from a craft store or something… Which could be a nice chance to keep Satya out even longer at a craft store and not see something that would upset her.

He chuckled to himself as he hopped into the common room after Hog, Mercy and Molly and watched as Lúcio walked up to the little girl, looking guilty, “You okay, Molly?”

“Yeah! Angie fixed me up!” she said cheerfully, Mercy looking pleasantly surprised at the sudden use of a nickname, “’N Ana got me some clean clothes ‘n loiked th’ present I made ‘er ‘n she made me hair pretty! So ‘m all good now!”

“That’s-That’s good…” He said, shaking a bit before he bent down to her level and gave her a hug, “I’m so sorry, Molly!” He said, looking as if he was about to cry, “ I didn’t mean for that to happen! I thought he was just going to yell at me or something, I wouldn’t have gotten in his face if I knew it’d put you in harms way… I’m so _so_ sorry!” He said, truly meaning it.

Molly gave him a gentle squeeze and whispered softly enough that Rat hardly was able to hear it from his spot less than ten feet away from them, “It’s not yer fault though. ‘E was gonna push you ‘n hit me instead. ‘E wanted ta hurt someone, he jus’ got th’ wrong someone.” He could see her squeeze a little harder, “So please, don’ ‘pologize. Ya didn’ do nothin’ wrong.”

Rat was surprised to hear such an adult like thing to say from Molly, but, seeing as she lived in a house filled with adults (even though a good portion of them could act like kids, especially around her), two of which were parents, he figured that she’d gleaned what she could say from them via her powers, just in case something happened.

Lúcio was too busy being relieved that she forgave him to wonder this apparently, so he simply nodded and continued to hug her for another moment or two, a few tears trickling down his cheeks as he murmured something into her hair that Rat couldn’t hear, Molly smiling softly and gently patting him on the back.

Lúcio released her and smiled broadly at her, a few stray tears still stuck to his cheek, “Hey, you still think you can make those scrap scuptures for my new music video?” he asked as he wiped at them with the back of his wrist.

Molly became giddy at the mention of it, “’Course! Jus’ need ta check if Da’ don’ need too much scrap fer ‘is gun!” she said, “Oh ‘n if th’ shipment from tha’ junkyard came in yet!” She then looked to her Dadhog who mumbled something about not using too much in the last mission nor while at the petshop so there was still plenty for her to use, then to Brigitte, who gave her a thumbs up.

“Yeah, I’ll get started after th’ party since I don’ gotta test nothin’ fer th’ tooth fairy roight now!” she assured him. Then looked to Winston, as if remembering something, “If tha’s okay with you.”

Winston nodded, gently pushing his glasses farther up on his face as he said that, “I’ll need to read more information from your data stick before I can began thinking up a good method to test that, so that’s actually to our advantage.”

Molly smiled and informed him that, “Then I’ll start after th’ party! I’ll put any I finish in yer room, okay?”

“That’s great! Thanks, Molls!” he said, gently ruffling her hair. Molly’s smile grew before she walked over to the larger group by the omnics while Lúcio plopped back by Hana, looking relieved that Molly seemed to have accepted his apology.

Rat plopped himself between Hana and Lúcio, deciding to help keep the topic off of Lúcio’s guilt by offering his help with the costumes, starting with a “G’day.”

“So, what special Talon info did we just get?” Hana asked quietly before he could volunteer.

“Dunno,” he said, doing his best to sound nonchalant with a shrug, making sure to check that Molly was busy admiring the puppies and kittens on Zarya and Orisa’s nails before whispering, “Too busy keepin’ Hog from killin’ th’ suit by gettin’ ‘im ta wash Molly’s blood off of ‘im.” He said, thumbing to Hog, who was talking in a back corner with Mercy, Pharah and Reinhardt, their faces grim.

“So does that mean that this information came from that Sanjay guy?” Lúcio asked, his voice low but his excitement growing, pleased that the man would be properly grilled and punished, not simply for fucking with his home, but for the added crimes of hurting Molly and hitting on his crush, the guilt seemingly forgotten.

“… Tha’s hard ta say. I mean, _technically_ it prob’ly did, but Molly was how we found out ‘bout it.” he whispered.

“Molly?” he said his normal voice, the two scowling and shushing at him, but it was too late, Molly heard him, “Yeah?”

Well shite.

“Uh, did that guy apologize?” Lúcio awkwardly asked her. Molly froze for a second as all eyes turned to her before giving him a stiff, broad smile, “Yeah, ‘course! ‘E said my present fer Ana was impressive too, offered me some money ta go to a Vishkar art school when ‘m older too, but I said nah. I wanna be a hero of Overwatch when I grow up! I can draw ‘n build ‘n stuff when I ain’ helpin’ you lot save th’ world! Maybe I can use me art ta help people even more so th’ PETRAs act can stay dead!” She said, her voice light and chipper at the last two sentences, everyone’s expressions (save for Zenyatta and Bastion, whose expressions never really changed) melting at the statement as they soaked in the fact that they all had inspired a child to want to save people like they did.

Satya seemed to relax a bit at this information, looking a bit proud of Molly’s skills that her boss would offer her something so prestigious and that Molly turned it down to help those in need, before she looked at the birds hatching on Bastion’s nails. When Molly saw that most of the adults and bots were refocusing on their nails, her smile vanished and she shook her head then mouthed, ‘tell ya later!’ to Lúcio.

She then forced a big old smile on her face as she gave Bastion a thumbs up on his nails, the bot seeming… excited? Pleased? Rat didn’t know, bloodthirsty was the only expression he’d seen on a bot before coming here. And quite frankly, those expressions were something that seemed to be stuck on Zenyatta and Bastion’s metal mugs despite the others telling him otherwise. Orisa’s facial expressions changed, but it was still a bit hard to grasp at first. Hana had been very helpful in that regard. (He still didn’t trust them, Zenyatta’s peace offering aside, but they’d been good so far, he’d either catch them in the act or they really were on their side. Still hard to tell if he could really ever feel comfortable with them around.)

The two young members of Overwatch looked at him expectantly, as if hoping he’d give them the information.

“Not now.” He said, “’Metra moight hear.”

The two pouted, “Well, what can you tell us?” Hana asked softly.

“Apparently ‘e ‘n Molls got into an argument. She called ‘im a nobody since ‘Metra does all th’ work ‘n ‘e doesn’ do shite ‘n ‘e told ‘er ‘bout me ‘n Roadie’s crime spree.” He whispered.

“You mean you guys never told her that?” Lúcio asked, being careful to stay quiet this time.

“Roadie still hasn’ shown ‘er his actual face ‘cause ‘e thinks tha’ it’ll scare her so much tha’ she won’ wanna be ‘is little girl anymore.” Rat said flatly, “_Of course_ we hadn’ told ‘er! We wanted ‘er ta have a good understandin’ of _why_ we _moight_ do tha’ ‘fore we owned up to it. Plus, it ain’t exactly somethin’ you brag ‘bout to a kid, ya know?” The two considered this for a moment, then nodded.

“So, what are you two going to do?” Hana asked, sounding a bit upset that he and his partner in crime would have to explain their past horrible actions to the little girl who thought the world of them.

“Roadie’ll have ta talk to ‘er ‘bout it. ‘N show ‘er his face.” He said, “As fer me, well, I figure I can help keep ‘Metra distracted.”

“How you gonna do that?” Lúcio asked.

“Actually, I was hopin’ you could help me with some of tha’.” He said, pointing to Hana with a metal digit, surprising her.

“Ya see, Old Angel Wings pointed out tha’ I haven’t been able ta get Molls a birthday present ‘n how ‘Metra took pictures of lots of stuff she seemed ta loike.” He explained, “But I don’ know if we’ll be gone long ‘nough fer her ta not see somethin’ she moight get upset ‘bout. So I figured I should have ‘nother reason to mosey ‘round th’ shops in town. You ‘n Molls have been workin’ on Halloween costumes fer a while now, roight?”

“Yeah.” Hana confirmed, “So?”

“So I’d loike ta help too.” He said, indicating his own shorts, “I’ve been patchin’ up me clothes fer years, fixed ‘n helped re-fit Hog’s since I hoired ‘im. I also make th’ patches we use ta cover up holes ‘n shit we get in ‘um too.”

“Is that why Hog’s got that lighting bug patch on the back of his pants?” Lúcio chuckled.

He smiled and shrugged, “Figured Molls would loike it. Plus, can’ really take it in, so I had ta put a patch over th’ bullet hole.”

“Hmm…” Hana said, “Have you made clothes before?” she asked him.

“Nah, but I prob’ly won’ be on active duty fer a while, so I got plenty of toime on me hands.” He said, wiggling his flesh and metal fingers, “Best ta keep these ones busy, if ya know what I mean.” He snickered.

Hana closed her eyes and placed one of her hands under her chin thoughfully as she let out a hum. After a moment or two, she opened them and nodded, “Alright, you’re in. I’ll show you what we have so far.”

She motioned for him to follow and he and Lúcio did so, Hana explaining on the way to her room that, “We don’t actually need to make most of the clothes ourselves, I bought most of it online, but we will probably need to do a lot of tailoring and there will be a few things we will need to make ourselves out of cloth and metal, we have Torb doing most of the metal work as well as some crocheting, but having you on tailoring, sewing and some of the mechanical stuff with Torb, we can really go all out!” she said excitedly as they made their way to the dorms.

“Th’ fuck is crochetin’?” he muttered to Lúcio.

“It’s like knitting, only with one needle and it’s got a hook on the end of it.”

“Huh, maybe I should ask Torb if ‘e can teach Roadie, Molls would be thrilled if her Dadhog made ‘er something himself.” He said thoughtfully.

Lúcio happily agreed and offered to do that for him before Hana asked, “Is there a specific place you two are going to in town?”

“Anything ya moight need while I drag ‘Metra ‘round town, I’ll look fer. Wanna keep ‘er out fer as long as I can so th’ Birthday girl can enjoy interrogatin’ th’ suit fer as long as she wants.” Rat said, Lúcio muttering under his breath how he’d want to watch Ana interrogate the bloody suit too, making him pleased that he had a good friend (other than Hog anda Torb) who distrusted suits as much as he did.

When he first met Lúcio and heard Satya call him a thief, he eagerly asked about what he managed to score from Vishkar. Making Satya mad and her leave with a huff before Lúcio explained what exactly he stole and why. Once he heard that he’d stolen a device meant to basically mind control an entire town and changed it into a device that healed wounds with music, he looked at him plainly and said, “Then she’s wrong then. A thief would steal it ‘n sell it ta someone else or break it apart ‘n sell it in pieces. You stole it, yeah, but ya made it inta somethin’ else. Yer more loike a sort of Robin Hood engineer than a thief.”

Lúcio seemed to like the idea so much he’d written a single called ‘New Age Robin Hood’ and sent the proceeds to a charity that helped vigilantes avoid prison time for their illegal methods of protecting the people.

“A few things, yeah.” She said, snapping Rat out of his flash back and helping him refocus on the objective of their little visit to her room as she opened her door and ushered them inside, once they were in, she quickly closed it behind them, as if fearful someone would spy on them and walked across the room and pulled a scrapbook from under her bed, opened it up and handed it to them. She then walked over to her laptop and started it up, “I’m going to print out some pictures of the stuff we’re looking for in particular to keep Symmetra from asking too many things and spoiling the surprise, but I’ll need you to know what we’re going for so if we can’t get exactly what we’re looking for, we can still get the same feel.” She explained, not even looking down at her keyboard as she tapped on it, her printer buzzing into life nearby and making both men jump before going back to look in the scrapbook.

On each page was one of their names and various pictures, some of Molly’s crayon and marker drawings (the crayons and markers were hand-me-downs from Fareeha and a few other young visitors to the Gibraltar base who had left some of their stuff behind), color palettes, images from what looked like some of Hana’s games and notes scribbled in what he guessed was Pipsqueak’s native language along with some of Molly’s childish scrawl. It was pretty cool to look at and he could see why those who were in on this project were so excited about it.

He carefully flipped a few pages and stopped a spread of pages with Roadhog’s name on one and Molly’s on the other, but their costumes seemed to be part of a set from something called...

“The fuck is Bioshock?” he asked the pro-gamer. She gave him a look to ask, ‘are you joking?’ only to seem to remember that, unlike her, he grew up in a place where video games were pretty much non-existant, hell, Hog had even told her that the few systems and such that survived the first omnic crisis and the omnium blowing up were used for spare parts more often than not out there when Rat had told her he’d never played anything but those UFO catcher machines until they left Junkertown.

She then put her computer on her bed and started up one of her many consoles. She then typed in a name with the keyboard that was attached to the glowing box and pulled up a game in her memory bank called ‘Bioshock: Collector’s Edition.’

“Bioshock is about an underwater Utopia that turns into a Distopia when a war breaks out between the rich and the poor residents, you, the player, goes into this place a few years after the big blow out and walk around and piece together a story as you try to find a way out. It’s famous for it’s game play, it’s beautiful style and, at the time, mind blowing story telling… As well as two iconic inhabitants.” She then opened the game and moved around the oddly styled environment that Junkrat found almost too flashy for his tastes. But, despite that, he could still appreciate how he assumed the atmosphere used to be before the whole place went to shit, it was far better than Junkertown anyways (and had way more food and materials).

Hana seemed to focused on following a sound that reminded him of a documentary he watched for a little bit about the creatures of the ocean while unable to sleep in the shitty motel he and Hog were hiding out in, in particular, the sound of a whale’s call, to notice Lúcio squint and pull something from under the mattress and blush when he pulled out a frilly pink bra. She was too absorbed in navigating the game’s map to hear Rat snickering at his reaction, Lúcio tossing it to him out of revenge, the two then playing hot potato with it for a couple of seconds before Lúcio quickly stuffed it under her pillow before she turned around to see the two feigning curiousity as they watched her play before she continued her search.

She continued to follow the sounds until she seemed to have found what she had been looking for and pointed to two figures on the screen, a guy in a big metallic suit with a huge helmet with a few glass circles that you couldn’t see into and a big ass drill for one hand (note to Rat from Rat: That looks badass, remember it for later). Beside him was a little girl with glowing eyes, pale skin, a dirty, stained dress and a big ass needle attached to something with a glowing red fluid in it in her hand, she was poking at a dead body with the needle, as if checking something out.

The two characters were the same as the ones on Molly and Hog’s scrap book pages, only it was a bit strange watching them in motion as a person in a weird mask ran up to the girl with a gun, she screamed and the big guy drilled a fucking hole into him for trying to attack the little girl…

Okay, now that he saw them in action, he could definitely see the resemblance now.

“The big guy in the old school diving suit is called a ‘Big Daddy’.” Hana explained, “And the little girl with him is called a ‘Little Sister’. Big Daddies are conditioned to protect the little sisters at all costs because the Little Sisters were implanted with a slug who produces special gunk called ‘Adam’ that made items that give people special powers and people started trying to kill them and harvest those slugs to get more power when they went out to harvest more Adam from dead people, something the little girls were also conditioned to do. So they got the Big Daddies to protect the Little Sisters while they’d go out to collect Adam. Usually with the Big Daddies killing anyone who were out to harm the little girls.”

“Tha’s fucked up.” He said.

“Agreed. But still, you can see the similarities between these two and Molly and Roadhog.” She said, “Molly was the one who pointed them out, she was so eager to play it when she saw the cover, she kept pointing at it and went, ‘Look, it’s called a Big Daddy and has a little girl! Jus’ loike me ‘n my Da’!’ I couldn’t say no to her when she pleaded with me to play it, she was just so happy because of those two on the cover.” She then looked at the two guiltily, “She and I have a few short play throughs of it for my fans and when she was telling them how much they resembled her and her Daddy, they started making animations of her as a Little Sister and me as the main character running around in the game together.” She then looked at him, “After I watched one, I had an idea to let Molly’s first Halloween be even better by letting them have matching costumes of her as a Little Sister and him as a Big Daddy. Then we decided to have Mercy as Doctor Brigid Tenenbaum, a doctor who created and looks out for the Little Sisters. And we decided to have McCree as the player character, Jack, because, well, he needed to be something other than a cowboy and this one is probably all we can get him to say yes to…” She said, as if needing to explain herself and being unable to stop gushing out why they picked what and why.

“After that, the two started coming up with more ideas for everyone else’s costumes.” Lúcio chimed in as he turned a few pages and pointed to one with Rat’s moniker on it…

Which was next to one labeled, ‘Symmetra’.

“You two are from the Bloodborne series.” Hana said proudly, “Along with Reinhard and Hanzo. We thought you four would look so cool in these Victorian Era clothes and Molly said the weapons suited you all too.”

He looked at his own page, the costume was pretty cool looking. They even gave him a gun and a giant hammer that was labeled as a ‘boom hammer’.

Now _that_ weapon was one he could see himself using in a heartbeat.

“Noice.” He said as he began looking at his, Hanzo’s, Reinhardt’s and Satya’s pages, mainly to get an idea of the style as well as to wonder how she’d look with the outfit they’d picked out for her on before moving on to look at everyone else’s costumes.

Apparently Hana and Molly had chosen costumes based on the video games that lined Hana’s shelves.

He didn’t know any of them by name, but they certainly picked some interesting costumes for everyone, so he simply stacked on the praise and accepted the stack of papers she gave him and told her that he’d keep it in his bag for safe keeping until he got “’Metra” (since, again, he’d only call her by her real name when they were alone for the time being) out of the base, then he’d keep an eye out for them.

Hana and Lúcio seemed pleased by this, before Hana said, “Now that we’ve got that out of the way, what did that guy actually say to Molly.”

Rat sucked in a breath and finally relayed the information Mercy had given him earlier to them.

“Why is that _bastard_ still alive?” Hana snarled, Lucio nodding angrily in agreement.

“Trust me, I nearly grabbed me R.I.P tire ta change tha’, but killin’ ‘im jus’ means ‘Metra gets in trouble ‘n loses everything, includin’ ‘er arm ‘n hard loight, ‘n they jus’ send someone else in ta do th’ same thing.”

“So we give him what he deserves, then it’s game over for Symmetra.” Hana summed up.

He nodded grimly, “Tha’s why we should try ta keep ‘er out of th’ way, not jus’ so she don’ foind out someone she trusted is in Talon, but so ‘e don’ do nothin’ to ‘er out of spoite.”

“Well, shopping is a good way to go.” Hana said, “And we do need a lot of small things that will take a while to get…”

“Yeah but if they get that much stuff, you’ll need a ride that can hold all that stuff and I doubt Roadhog will want to leave Molly here without him to drop you and Symmetra off if that guy’s still here.” Lúcio pointed out, “Maybe we should go with you two, that way you two have a ride to the shops and back and we can pick up some more stuff that we should get anyway, I mean, I could pick up some more scrap for the sculptures Molly’s making for me,” He looked over to Hana, “And you still have a few things for Molly’s birthday party that you wanted to pick up, right?”

Hana smiled, “Yeah! I also wanted to pick up a few more age appropriate games we could play together during live streams. Molly and I have been having fun with Bioshock, but she’s always upset when the game tells us that we have to kill a Big Daddy to save a Little Sister and there is a lot of other messed up things that happen later in this game that I’d rather her not see. We can pick up the game again when she’s older and can handle it.”

The two males in the room nodded in agreement before Rat told them that he’d text them when he and ‘Metra (Satya) were leaving and they’d head out with them.

Rat then went to his room to grab his wallet (something that Winston explained that he should have when going out, since his credit cards were currently put under his fake name and he’d need the fake drivers license Winston made for him to make sure no one could argue that it wasn’t his card with his money on it.) and stuff the papers Hana printed for him in his satchel for later before heading back to the common room and hearing Molly call his name and started chuckling as she started dragging him into the room to see Satya’s, Genji’s and the bots’ nails.

Zenyatta picked the ones that resembled his orbs, golden and violet nail polish seeming to ooze out of them, “Very impressive and detailed, thank you Junkrat.”

Genji bounced on his bum like a child, his nails had a long blade goind through them with a simplified green dragon going up and down in the air behind it, “Me and Hanzo have matching ones! I can bug him about this for ages now! Thanks Junkrat!”

He wasn’t wrong, Hanzo’s hands had arrows flying across his nails with, each hand having it’s own dragon flying behind the arrows. Hanzo had been pouting when he saw what Genji had picked, but he could see that he was also kind of pleased to be matching his little brother at the same time.

He recalled Genji telling him once that his older brother was something called a ‘tsundere’, which meant he acted all mean, but he really did care and acted all rude when embarrassed or flattered.

Genji had his brother nailed, if you asked him.

Orisa and Bastion were over the moon about their nails, Orisa telling him that she’d had Lena send pictures of them to her creator Efi, and it had apparently made a tough day for the girl better and she thanked him for brightening all of their days.

Okay that had been too sweet for Rat to brush off, so he simply blushed, rubbed the back of his head and said that he didn’t paint them on them, but he was glad that they all liked them so much.

Satya’s nails had been something he’d been wondering about since he left to deliver the message to Roadhog about the suit’s demands after they’d been on their hands and knees searching for a tiny tooth. She had been completely overwhelmed by what had just happened and Lena, Brigitte and Hana pulled her over to the couch and began asking her which design on her sheet did she want to do, trying to keep her mind off the fact that her boss might be walking to his death sentence and a few other horrible gems that had just happened.

She had apparently picked the design he had drawn up of her little turrets, facing different directions with little blue lines coming out of them (showing their lines of fire) with the ones on her thumb facing forwards with a little fake gem in the middle, as if it was shooting at the viewer.

She smiled softly at them as she thanked him for incorporating her turrets in his design in such a cute way. He felt his cheeks flush and could hear some of the others giggling at him in response before Pharah suggested that they clean up the common room and place her mother’s presents in her room and have her open them later, after this meeting she was having with Winston and old 76.

“But we haven’t done _our_ nails yet!” Lena said, holding up her own hands for inspection, “Me, Brigitte, Hana and Molly have been doin’ everyone else’s nails, but we haven’t had a chance ta pick from our sheets yet!”

“Alright, we won’t clean up the nail polish just yet, but can you help us move the chairs back to the dining hall?” The adults agreed, with Molly looking at the left over black nail polish that Reinhardt did his best to mop up with some hand towels from the kitchen, which Rat saw him dump into a nearby trashcans earlier.

‘Maybe I should grab some more of those too.’ He thought as he placed his flesh hand on her shoulder, “Oi, Molls,” he whispered, making her look up, “Don’ worry ‘bout it. We’ll figure tha’ out, okay?”

“…’kay.” She said, although it was obvious that she was still bothered by it. But since it soaked into the carpet, unless they could replace all the carpet in the room or move the couch a bit to hide it, it wasn’t going away any time soon.

“Come on, tell me ‘bout these snacks.” He said, motioning to the plates filled with food. Molly perked up a bit and began telling him the names of the foods, having a hard time pronouncing most of them, but it helped keep her mind off of the stain until her Dadhog arrived back with Bob at his heels from dropping off chairs and his little discussion with the other elder adults in the room.

He then saw that Satya also came back, offering to do Hana’s nails while Mercy did Molly’s, Pharah did Brigitte’s and Mei did Lena’s and Genji started talking to Zarya about what kind of exercises she would have his brother do, ‘out of curiousity’ and giggling as she talked about them. Lúcio and Reinhardt began chatting about the new songs he had written recently and the purpose of Molly’s scrap sculptures and the bots happily talked amongst themselves, still very pleased with their new nails, apparently.

This was his chance!

He walked over to Satya and Hana and sat down with them, “So whaddya pick, Pipsqueak?” he asked her.

“The bunnies with the controllers on the thumbs.” She said, “I like the other ones too, but I think I’ll save those for little contests with my fans. Let them have something to chew on in case we have to go on a mission on short notice or if I need a little break for a while.”

He nodded, “Noice.” He then looked to Satya, making sure she saw him peek back at Molly before looking for her, “Oi, ‘Metra, ya think you can help a mate out, ‘ere?” he asked quietly.

“How so?” she asked him, surprised that he was trying to stay quiet when he preferred to be as loud as possible.

“Well, I haven’ gotten Molly a birthday present yet ‘n Old Angel Wings said tha’ I ain’t cleared ta work in th’ workshop yet. But she also said ya took some pictures of stuff she loiked while you all were out shoppin’ last week.” He explained, “Ya think ya could help me look fer a noice present?”

“It’s probably best that I do.” She said, giving him that superior smile of hers, “I doubt you’d get her anything safe without supervision.”

“Oi, how is a flame thrower dangerous?” he teased, making both girls chuckle.

“I presume you’d prefer to go as soon as possible?” She asked him.

“Yeah, ‘m helpin’ Hana ‘n all them with th’ Halloween costumes too ‘n I’ll prob’ly need supervision fer tha’ too.” He said.

“Oh! Lúcio and I were going to head into town today too! We both wanted to grab some things, we could give you a ride and meet up with you two when we’re all done getting our stuff and look for the costume stuff together!” she said cheerfully.

“I see.” Satya said, sounding a bit nervous.

“Th’ suit ain’ gonna bug ya ‘bout bein’ in a car with Lúcio.” He assured her, “After what happened earlier, he’ll prob’ly keep quiet ‘bout it. Plus, I think ‘e’d rather ya in a car with ‘im then on Roadie’s boike.”

She nodded vigorously in agreement and said, “What time were you all thinking?”

“How about four thirty?” Hana suggested.

“Sounds good ta me,” He agreed.

“Great! I'll tell Lúcio that's when we're heading down." Hana said.

“Then shall we all meet in the garage at four fifteen?” She asked, they all nodded and Rat thanked her warmly before walking around to see the others choices.

Tracer’s fingers were all orange, except her thumbs, one had a small image of her face with a heart and the other had a small image of Emily with a heart. She was practically bouncing in her seat, making poor Mei ask her to stop far more often than she would have liked, “Thanks for this, Rat!” She gushed.

“Ya know, you can put yer fingers up ta one of th’ bot’s” he indicated Orisa, “’N I bet yer girl will love it.” He suggested. Lena let out an eager gasp and called Orisa over to share his idea with her, the Junker taking this as his cue to leave to see what Brigitte was getting as the two began snapping pictures of their fingers with gleeful expressions, Mei letting out an exasperated sigh, but unable to hide the smile on her face.

Brigitte had chosen the interweaving gears design he had made, but Pharah seemed to be having a hard time with it, “Need a hand?” he asked her, taking note of the little rockets on her fingers as he held out his metal limb for her and wiggled his fingers.

“Depends on how long you’re willing to loan it out.” She replied, defeated, but still able to launch a good come back at him, which was a good sign.

He laughed at that while he plopped down beside her, “I’ll make ya a deal, I’ll do th’ gears if you see if ya can foind a way to hoide tha’ black stain on th’ carpet.”

Pharah looked at the poor job she had been doing, then at the stain on the carpet, then she looked him right in the eyes, “Deal.” She said as she handed the nail polish over.

“Pleasah doin’ business with ya.” He purred as he began using some nail polish remover on Brigitte’s finger, “So, about the new designs fer Bob’s leg…” he began.

“Forget the leg, what was all that about Talon?” Brigitte asked in a conspiratorial whisper.

“I dunno, missed it, came in when Nan was on ‘er way out.” He said, then pulled his face into a pout, “Damn, should’ve asked ‘er ta keep me in th’ loop on what ‘er Mum found out instead…”

“I think you made a good deal.” Brigitte assured him, “I know most of us would rather that part of the party be forgotten.”

“Yeah…” he agreed as he finished cleaning up the mess and motioned for her to give him her other hand. She did, then sighed with a smile on her face, “So about Bob’s leg…”

The two discussed it as he did her nails, Brigitte smiling when he was done with her gears, “Papa warned me that you were a man of many unexpected talents when I first got here, but this was a talent I never would have imagined you’d have!” she laughed.

He gave a playful bow that made her giggle and he called out to Pharah that, “Done me end of th’ bargin!” She leaned over the back of the couch and motioned for Brigitte to show her hands. After a brief inspection, she said, “I’ll be done with mine by the end of the day.”

“Good on ya.” He replied before walking over to his niece, “Whacha poick, Molls?”

Molly smiled broadly and held up a finished hand, revealing the lightning bugs that had special glow-in-the-dark nail polish for the glow on top of the yellow color, so they would actually glow in the dark, “This one!” she said excitedly, holding up her half down hand.

“Thought tha’ be th’ one you’d poick.” He snickered before leaning over to whisper in her ear, “Oi, make sure ta have yer Dadhog show ya what’s under his mask today, will ya? Found out today tha’ ‘e still hasn’ done tha’ yet.”

Her eyes widened in recollection that her Dadhog did _not_ actually show her what was under his mask like he was supposed to last week and nodded vigorously, “’E’ll do it today!” she said firmly, Bob letting out a bark of what he assumed was agreement.

“Attagirl!” He said with a gentle ruffle of her hair, not feeling bad for throwing his bestie under the bus here. But Roadie was _supposed_ to show her last week, he could understand why he didn’t, but he still learned lots of stuff she was uncomfortable about and it as unfair that she was the only one to experience that when he had plenty he was uncomfortable about to share with her.

Plus, he had a feeling that the reason for those grim faces earlier was Mercy telling the eldest people in the room about the suit’s threat to expose Roadie’s identity to child services and hopefully making Roadhog reveal his face to his little girl was a good way to get his mind off of that.

He played with Molly and Bob for a half an hour or so before they cleaned up the last bit of the party and dropped the birthday girl’s presents in her room for her to open later.

He then passed his niece and her dog to her Dadhog and whispered a reminder about his mask into her ear. She gave him a determined look and a thumbs up before Roadie took them outside so Bob could go to the bathroom again.

He started chuckling the moment they left before heading to his room to grab his satchel to make sure everything was there and saw a small smear of something reddish in color on the inside of his left wrist, a memory of him trying to calm a blood covered Molly down while trying to see what was wrong popping into his head at the sight of it. He hadn’t realized he had some of her blood on his hand, but he was now itching to get it off and scrubbing it off in the showers until his wrist was red and raw, while not his favorite thing in the least, seemed to be the best way to do so.

He started his way down the hall with his shower tote only to see Symmetra walking towards her own room, she seemed surprised at the sight of the tote.

He rose his left hand and pointed to the spot with his right, “Found some of Molly’s blood on me.” He said simply, a bit embarrassed to be caught,“Want it off.”

She nodded in understanding and moved towards the wall, as if to give him more room to pass, “Ta.” He said softly as he made his way there.

“Jamison?” she called, making him freeze in place, his cheeks pink as he turned to face her.

“Yeah?” he squeaked, silently scolding himself for the awkward sound.

“I was thinking that, even if we don’t find something you’d like to get Molly for her birthday, I do not mind helping you _make_ something for her birthday, surely Angela will be alright with it if you have supervision in the workshop.” She said, her voice and expression calm, but her hands shaking a bit and her cheeks were pink.

His face felt as if it was on fire again as a smile exploded on his face.

Hooley Dooley…

“Sounds good ta me, thanks Satya!” he said, pleased to see that him using her real name made her just as flustered as her saying his real name made him as her face turned red and she nodded bashfully.

He then continued on his way to the showers and, after removing his clothes, boot and prosthetics and leaving them on a bench outside the shower, he actually scrubbed himself with the bar of soap he’d been given.

Well, the best he could, anyway, he only had one hand and that stupid thing got slippery so quick and it ended up shooting out of his hand halfway through his scrubbing and sliding across the floor, far from his seat on the bench.

“Th’ _one_ toime I try ta use it ‘n it does _tha’_.” He grumbled as he glared at the foaming useless lump on the shower floor, knowing that he’d be unable to retrieve it safely with only one arm and one leg on the wet floor.

He spent the rest of his short shower sitting on the seat and grumbling curse words under his breath as he glared at the soap (and he washed his hair, but he was still grumbling and glaring at the soap as he did it).

After he was cleanish and mostly dried himself off, he got up and carefully hopped over to the bench outside the shower, got his arm, leg, and shorts on and walked back to his room to gather one of the few shirts he owned to put on as well, because no shirt, no shoes, no bloody service.

He put his boot on and spent the rest of the time with his eyes on his clock, willing it to be four o’clock so he could start heading down to the garage.

After the torment of waiting, the clock finally hit four and he began making his way to the garage, pleased that after all the drama today, he could have a good time with a lovely lady.


	29. Reveal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hog finally shows his daughter his face, Bob has to pee and Molly finds some proof.

Roadhog looked down at the tiny child sitting on her bed, her arms crossed, her face pulled into a stubborn scowl and her cowlicks in sharp angles pointing towards the floor, as if threatening to drill into the ground to further insure that she was not going to budge here.

He looked to Bob for help, only to see the dog give him a, “Mate, just get it over with already” kind of look as he lounged on the bed with her.

He sighed, motioned for them to move over and then sat down on the bed, making Molly and Bob bounce into the air and scramble to balance themselves before Molly went back to her stubborn stance and Bob resumed lounging on the bed.

“Alroight, you win, I’ll take me mask off now.” He sighed. He was going to kill Rat for this…

His little girl’s expression quickly shifted from threatening to thrilled and she began bouncing on her bum at her victory, her cowlicks curling into their usual heart shape on the top of her head.

… Okay, that was cute enough to warrant forgiveness this time… But just this time, he couldn’t let Rat get away with everything just because his little girl pouted in his defense.

He nervously began fiddling with the straps of his mask, telling her that, “Ya know, yer Mum gave me this mask.”

“She did?” she asked, surprised.

“Yup, ‘er sister made it ta help people breathe better, but she made it look loike a piggy ‘cause she knew how much I loike ‘um.” He said, marveling at how quickly the large smile had grown on Molly’s face at that fact, probably happy to hear how nice her mother was to him as well as the fact that she had an aunt, because the next thing she said was, “I have an Aunt?!”

“Yeah, she died before you were born. ‘Er name was Molly. Yer Mum told me tha’ if she ever had a daughter, she’d name ‘er after ‘er sister. When Mercy told me you were ‘er kid, figured I should do what yer Mum couldn’.” He said as he undid another strap, “One day I plan ta foind ‘er ‘n introduce ya if I can, but seein’ as it ain’ safe roight now, I figure she’ll fergive me fer not showin’ ya to ‘er sooner.”

Molly’s eyes were wide with emotions that seemed to well up from the depths of the violet orbs. So many glistening and starting to overflow as she dived into his stomach, making him let out an ‘oof!’ as her little arms did their best to wrap around his massive gut and he felt something warm and wet hit his skin.

He had a silent momentary freak out, worrying that she was having another nose bleed, only for her to peek up at him from where she had nuzzled into his belly, giving him a big, happy, teary grin from her spot, a little bit of white poking out from where she’d lost her first tooth and the other hole looking less red and swollen, “Thank you, Daddy!” She said, melting his heart with her joyful expression.

He lifted her up in the air with both hands and gently tossed her into the air and catching her, making her squeal with delight before he pulled her into a warm hug, “Any toime, love.” He said softly, “Any toime.” She nuzzled into his girth for a bit before he gently put her back down so she was sitting on the bed again and resumed removing his mask, his stomach twisting into a knot as she eagerly awaited the unveiling of his face.

Once he took off the mask, he started doing his best to take in deep breaths, Molly held out her hands, as if asking if she could see it in more detail and he obliged, handing it to her before continuing keeping his breathing even. In retrospect, perhaps it would have been best to have Molly see his face in his room where he had his machine to help him breathe better.

She was quick, taking in the bits and pieces of the mask with sharp eyes for a moment before she finally looked up at him, soaking in his appearance before holding her arms up, silently asking him to give her a better view. He sucked in a deep breath and lifted her up, careful to hold her up. The position he eventually decided was best was awkward, but it did not obstruct his lungs and allowed her easy access to his face.

Her fingers were gentle as they explored his face, her fingers freezing in place for a moment before they traced outside the edges of his scars, “Do they hurt?” she asked him. He silently debated telling her the truth or not before remembering that his face wasn’t behind the mask right now and she could see his expressions and read his mind if she wanted to, so honesty was the only policy here, much to his discomfort.

“Sometoimes…” he wheezed, “When I… remember… how I… got them.” Molly seemed to soak this in for a moment before giving him a kiss on the scar that ran across his nose.

His cheeks burned red, he had definitely_ not_ been expecting that.

“Ana told me she tha’ she used ta kiss Pharah’s owies to make them not hurt anymore! Now they should be all better!” she said proudly before smiling broadly and gently squeezing his cheeks, “Which is good ‘cause now I can play with yer cheeks!”

“Hmm?” he managed with a curious expression, hardly containing his smile at her antics.

“Yer cheeks are soft ‘n squishy, Da’!” she giggled as she bounced his fleshy cheeks in her tiny palms, “It’s loike when I was playin’ with cookie dough with Reinhardt, only without th’ chocolate bits!”

He felt a smile curl up his squished, rosy cheeks, “Yeah?” he said with a raspy chuckle as he gently took her own between his index fingers and thumbs, being careful not to hurt her as he put the tiniest amount of pressure he could into his fingers, the piggies she had painted on them smiling back at him as her face squished a bit, making her lips puff out like a fish, “Yer squishy too.”

She started laughing harder and, despite the difficulty he had breathing, he started to laugh with her.

They laughed for a good few seconds before he started coughing, making Molly’s face become etched with concern as she scrambled to put the mask she had slipped under her arm back onto his face. Once the two managed to do that, he held it close to his face and breathed deeply, his lungs screaming with relief as he helped Molly climb down his massive body.

Molly look up at him, thoughtful, then pointed at the broken strap of the mask, as if suddenly remembering something, “It’s broken.” She said.

“Yeah...” he said with a deep exhale, “Was gonna ask…” deep breath in again to get more air in, “Rat ta fix it but…” Another deep breath in to fuel the last bit of the sentence, “He’s been hurt.”

Molly stood on her bed, watching quietly as he began putting it back on, his fingers fiddling with the broken strap.

“Da’, if I fix yer mask, will you see Angela so you don’ have ta use it all th’ toime anymore?” she asked.

“Why?” he asked.

“’Cause it’s broken ‘n I wanna help fix it.” She said plainly, “’N there’s nothin’ wrong with yer face, I dunno why you don’ want no one ta see it.”

“Molly, other than you, Bob ‘n Rat, no one wants ta see my scary, ugly mug.” He said plainly, even before he got these scars, people weren’t fond of his face. While he was fairly confident in his strength and skill on the battlefield, his confidence in his own looks was pretty much nonexistent. He was fat, scarred, ugly and scary. He’d accepted it. Now, that didn’t mean that he wasn’t sensitive about it, but he had accepted that his looks weren’t his best quality…

“Yes they do!” she insisted with a scowl at the remark he’d made about his face, “We _all_ do!”

“Not everyone, Molly.” He sighed, years of hurt slipping through as bitter memories from his childhood began flooding back into his head. He wished he could smother those memories like he’d smothered so many bastards and bots over the years, but knew that he couldn’t. You couldn’t change the past, no matter how painful, you could only go forward and hope for a better tomorrow.

“Angela does!” she said firmly, “She thought it! I heard her!” He felt his cheeks burn and was glad she couldn’t see it… only for him to remember that, she didn’t need to.

He sighed and looked down at her, her stubborn posture and cowlick position were back again.

She wasn’t going to give up until he agreed.

He let out a groan as she wrapped herself around one of his arms and looked up at him, “_Please_, Da’? _Please_?” she pleaded. He let out a moan and felt Bob place a paw on his other hand and bark. He rose an eyebrow at him, curious as to what he said.

“Bob says ‘e’ll piss on th’ suit if ya do.” Molly promised in his stead, “He wanted ta do it earlier, but when I told Winston tha’ while we was outside he said he couldn’t.”

Roadhog looked over at Bob, then back at Molly, “How much piss we talkin’?” he asked.

Molly smiled impishly at him, “He’s been savin’ it sionce th’ suit crashed our bash! ‘E didn’ pee when Winston took us outsoide ‘n ‘e koinda hasta go.”

He looked at the two small creatures on the bed with him, taking in the furry one. He had barely taken a shit when he last took the mutt out… “Foine, but ‘e’s pissin’ on tha’ bloke foirst. ‘E needs ta let all tha’ out.”

“Agreed!” Molly said cheerfully, Bob letting out a happy bark and wagging his tail, signaling that these terms were fine by him before Hog scooped them both up and started walking to the conference room.

“Da’?”

“Yeah?”

“Can you promise not ta kill th’ suit ‘til after Bob’s done?” she asked him. He thought about it for a moment, while he still wanted to slaughter the fucker for hurting his little girl, he did admit it would take some of the comedy out of Bob pissing on him if he killed him before he was done. So with a nod and a grunt, he agreed to her terms, but told her that if the suit tried anything, he was as good as dead. She accepted that with a cheerful “Okay!” as they finally reached the corner that turned towards the conference room.

He spotted Hanzo and McCree standing guard outside the room, seeming to have a quiet conversation before they seemed to notice them coming their way. Hanzo walked up to them halfway down the hall towards the room in question and held ou this hand, “My apologies, but I cannot let you through.”

“But Bob hasta pee!” Molly insisted, Bob letting out a pitiful whine, as if to prove her point.

“There are other ways out of the base…” he began, only for McCree to walk up from behind him.

“I’ll let him out.” The Cowboy promised, motioning for Hog to pass Bob to him. The massive Junker obliged with a “Ta.”

McCree carefully pulled him into his arms and started cradling the pup in his arms, getting funny looks from Hanzo and Hog, “What?” he said. “Don’t wanna drop him.”

And with that, he turned on the heel of his boot and began making his way down the hall, Hanzo turning his back on him.

But just as he did that, the cowboy turned in his spot quietly and snuck over to the door, giving the two a devious grin and a thumbs up as he opened the door and slid through it, Bob in hand.

“What’s that mangey mutt doing in here?!” the suit cried making Hanzo jump, turn, see that McCree was no longer in the hallway and the three of them to race to the closest window and to peek through the blinds, the suit scowling as McCree put him on the table, where the suit, Ana, Morrison, Torbjörn, and Winston were sitting, the four of them giving the cowboy funny looks.

“Aren’t I suffering _enough_ because of these false accusations without this thing making it…” the suit stopped as Bob walked over and began sniffing him.

“What is he…” he began, only for Bob to seem satisfied and turn around and lift the nub where one of his back legs used to be.

“No. NO. NOOOO!!!” He cried before Bob unleashed an alarming amount of pee onto the suit, Molly and Hog laughing like crazy from outside while McCree, Torbjörn and Ana managed to stifle their snickers behind their hands or by biting their lips. Winston was shocked and disgusted while Morrison and Hanzo just looked pissed off. (which was better than the alternative, but still not a good thing to be right now.)

When the water works finally stopped, Bob turned his back on him and seemed to do a little digging motion on the table, as if he was trying to fling dirt on top of the suit to add to the humilation of being peed on.

“**_WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS_**!?” Sanjay Korpal demanded as Bob walked back over to McCree, looking quite pleased with himself.

“You asked if we had a test to tell if someone really was from Talon.” McCree said as he rubbed the dog’s head, “This is it.” he said, indicating Bob, “This pup don’t normally take a leak on people, too civilized fer that, but apparently folks from Talon are an exception to the rule.”

“Oh, please! Do you seriously expect me to believe that nonsense?!” the suit snapped.

“He’s peed on Widowmaker and Reaper already.” He said with a shrug, leaving out that Reaper hadn’t technically been peed on so much as Junkrat and Molly flung a water balloon at him that was filled with Bob’s urine, “First time’s chance, second time’s coincidence, third time’s a pattern.”

“But you all still have no _proof_ that I work for that group of lowlives!” he said, looking a bit smug, “You all have been questioning me for Gods know how long and you’ve got nothing but the word of an uneducated Junker child who I accidently hurt!”

“_Hit_.” Ana corrected, “You _hit_ her. And now that you mention it, I think it might be good to have Molly come here so we can settle this once and for all.” She looked to the window and smiled softly to them, “Roadhog, may Molly come in for a second, please?”

Hog hesitated, the last time the suit had been close to his little girl, he apparently threatened to reveal his identity to child services and to toss her into a brainwashing suit school for the rest of her childhood, and the time before that, he hurt her badly enough that she was bleeding from _three _places.

That and well, he said that he’d kill the suit next time he saw him,

“You can come in too, if you promise not to kill him.” Ana said, as if reading his mind.

He scowled, annoyed at that. He’d rather go in with at least the threat of it to keep the suit from hurting Molly again.

He looked to his little girl, “You wanna go in?” he asked her softly.

She placed her index and middle fingers on her temples and rubbed them for a moment or two before smiling, “Yeah,” she said happily, “I know where th’ proof is now!”

He glanced to Hanzo, who sighed and moved out of their way to let them in, even going so far as holding the door for them, “Ta!” Molly said sweetly as they entered. Hanzo blushed and nodded, embarrassed, before closing the door behind them and resumed his guard post at the door.

“Molly, you believe he works for Talon. Do you have any proof?” she asked her.

“Yeah, it’s…” She then paused for a moment before she looked at Hog, and asked in a quiet voice, “Which is left ‘n which is roight again?”

He pointed to her left hand, softly explaining that, “Th’ left one can make ‘n ‘L’ shape when ya hold out yer index finger and thumb.” He said, gently touching each finger he mentioned so she’d know which one he’d meant, “It’s also th’ only side tha’ Rat hasn’ lost limbs on yet, if tha’ helps too.”

“Thanks Da’!” she said cheerfully as she inspected her fingers thoughtfully, glancing up at the suit every few seconds or so as if checking something.

“You’re seriously taking the word of _this_ child over me?” Sanjay snorted with disbelief, a triumphant smirk crawling up his cheeks.

Roadhog and Bob both snarled in warning as Molly frowned and, after motioning to him to lower her to the table, she walked on the table top over towards the smug suit and squinted at his face.

“Look, this child obviously has no proof, so I believe we’re done here.” Sanjay said as he pulled himself out of his chair and glared at the elder members of Overwatch, “I will make sure Vaswani is pulled from this poisonous place and that our funding is pulled. Good luck staying together without our money. Now, if you excuse me, I have a lawyer to…” He suddenly plopped back down into his seat with an ‘oomph!’ with a wave of Molly’s hand before she took his jaw in her hands, narrowing her eyes as she looked into his own.

“Unhand me this instant, you little thieving brat!” Sanjay shouted, seemingly ready to push her away, only for her to poke his left eye, making him yelp as she turned back around and held out her finger for Ana, “here’s Bob’s birthday present to ya, Ana! It’s a Talon camera!” she said cheerfully.

Ana squinted at her finger for a moment before her eyes widened, “Is that a contact lens?”

“I dunno what tha’ means, but I know it’s a camera!” she said cheerfully.

“It is not!” the suit shouted, “It’s a contact lens!”

“Then why do ya only have one?” she asked him. The suit stiffened in his spot as Torbjörn, with a speed that Roadhog didn’t know he had, hopped up from his spot and stopped by the suit’s chair, hopped up and grabbed him by the jaw himself. The suit let out an awkward cry as he surged forward, at risk of falling out of his seat head first as the old man carefully inspected him before throwing him back into his seat, looking quite pleased with what he’d seen, “Molly’s right, there isn’ ‘nother contact lens in ‘is right eye.”

“Well, maybe it fell out when that massive murderer slammed me against the wall, you ever think of that?” Mr. Korpal shouted as he pointed to Hog.

“If you keep talkin’, this massive murderer is goin’ ta rip yer fuckin’ head off.” Hog growled, the suit going silent with fear and sinking back into his seat in a shitty attempt to create some distance between them.

“That’s enough!” Morrison said with a slam of his hands onto the table, “No one is going to kill anyone until we know all the facts!” he said sternly as he glared at Roadhog.

Hog didn’t flinch or move, he simply glared back, silently telling him that the suit’s lucky that he’s not dead already and every second he was alive was a test of his patience.

Old 76 seemed to get the message and sighed before he looked to the silverbacked scientist in the room, “Is it possible for you to be able to figure out if the lens is a camera?”

“Perhaps.” Winston said thoughtfully as he looked at Molly’s finger, “Athena, can you see if there is any kind of signal coming from this lens? If it truly is a camera, it would be sending out some sort of signal…”

“It is not a camera! It is a contact lens and I need it!” Sanjay shouted as he reached for Molly’s hand, the French tips Molly and Pipsqueak had put on them splattered with black and a single tiny dot of a rusty shade of red.

Hog suddenly saw the red and black swirls from earlier, Molly in the middle of them falling backwards with a pained yelp, her hands on her face for a moment before he shoved his scrap gun in the suit’s face so hard he pushed him out of his seat and onto the floor, the gun then aimed at his chest. Bob barking at the two of them as if to say, “Yeah! You show that piss stain!”

“ROADHOG!” The old soldier shouted angrily at him, “STAND DOWN!”

“_’E ain’ layin’ a hand on my little girl_!” he bellowed back, his paternal fury feeling as if it was pouring out of him like sweat on a hot, humid day back in Oz. He was almost worried if his rage could condense into acid rain for a second before they all heard the AI report that, “There is a signal, although it has cut itself off sortly after your suggestion, Winston, and while I am uncertain if it is Talon, it certainly is _not_ a Vishkar signal.”

“Thank you, Athena.” Morrison said as he looked towards the cowering suit on the floor, a dark smile curling up his cheeks, “It would seem as though we’ll be having a guest here for a little while.” He said, his tone light but with an undertone promising pain, misery and maybe a little torture, “Athena, would you please send a message to Vishjar saying that, due to a sudden collapse due to, what we can only assume at the moment to be some sort of illness, Sanjay Korpal is staying at the Overwatch base in Gibraltar until further notice while Dr. Ziegler does a diagnostic and treats him?”

“Certainly, Commander Morrison.” Athena replied.

“Athena, don’t send that message!” Sanjay squeaked.

“I am sorry, Mr. Korpal, but seeing as you lied to me to gain access to our facilities, I do not think it wise to listen to you henceforth, so request denied.” Athena replied coolly.

Hog smiled broadly under his mask, when he and Rat first arrived here, they were quite weary of the voice that came out of nowhere, but after a while, they’d gotten used to her and realized that she was more of a help than a bloodthirsty metal monster. And today, she once again proved her helpful status.

With a lovely helping of sass and one of the nicest ‘no, fuck you’s he’d ever heard.

“Roadhog, if you and Molly would follow me, please. I’d like to get that lens to my lab to see what else we can learn from it.” Winston said. Roadhog nodded and carefully scooped his child and her dog into his arms and followed him out into the hall, the lens carefully cradled in Molly’s palm.

“Da’?” Molly called.

“Yeah?” He replied.

“Don’ forget, after this, we gotta see Angie!” she said cheerfully, pleased that she had not only proved herself to be right, but that she was now going to have him keep up his end of their promise.

He let out a sigh, he _had_ forgotten about that. He wished that Molly had too, but it would seem that there was no way out of it now. She wouldn’t let him back out and he had a feeling that it was probably better that she didn’t.

A deal was a deal, Bob pissed on the suit, so he would see Mercy about his lungs.

He felt his stomach twist, his heart ache and his lungs tighten as he hoped that any love she might have for him would be blind, because that was his only shot of keeping it once she saw his miserable mug…


	30. Identities and discoveries

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mercy starts working on Hog's lungs, learns Molly's mother's real name and gets really into a chess game

Angela was in the kitchen with Pharah, Brigitte and Reinhardt, preparing dinner as they comforted Reinhardt that he would be unable to take Ana out for a lovely dinner at her favorite restaurant in town and had to call and cancel his reservation.

The old German sighed and relented to their points that he could take her out another night but pouted that he couldn’t make her birthday more special anyway.

“You can take ‘er out on my birthday, Reinhardt.” A child’s voice offered from the doorway.

The three of them turned to see Roadhog lumbering through the doorway while Molly and Bob happily skipped over to them, stopping at her and gently tugging at her skirt, “Angie, Angie! Da’ says ‘e’ll let ya help ‘im with ‘is lungs!”

Angela looked up at him, surprised until he said, “Molly wants ta fix me mask, but she can’ do tha’ if I need it ta breathe.”

“That would be quite difficult.” She agreed with a smile.

Finally.

_Finally_ she could help him with his breathing problems! It had been bugging her for so long and now, thanks to Molly, she could make sure he was in perfect health!

Pharah looked at the child, thoughtful, before she said, “Molly, didn’t you tell Lúcio that you’d work on those statues for his music video?”

Her expression fell, “Oh, roight! I forgot!” She looked up at Roadhog, “You want me ta bring me work with me so I can still go with ya?” she asked.

“Nah, jus’ make sure Brigitte goes ta th’ workshop with ya, rather ya be supervised while tha’ bastard suit’s still ‘ere.” Roadhog replied.

“Cheers!” Molly said before she looked to Brigitte, who smiled and motioned for her to follow her.

“Come on, Molly. I’ll help you lay out a tarp so you can lay out the pieces you want on the floor without Satya freaking out later about the mess.” Brigitte offered.

“Ta!” She replied before giving her pup a rub, “Bob, you watch Da’, okay?” Bob let out a bark that she seemed to take as an affirmative, making her smile before she kissed his head, making his tail wag like crazy before she walked over to Brigitte, took her hand and the two left for the workshop.

“Thanks.” He said to Pharah, although Angela didn’t understand why until she considered that his lungs might not be something anyone could fix and how Molly might take that news. But instead of bringing it up, she simply motioned for him to come with her as she left the kitchen and made her way to her office, Bob bringing up the rear.

“So, you showed her your face, I assume?” She asked him.

“… Yeah.” He said after a moment of silence.

“And?”

“…She wasn’ scared.” He said, sounding a bit relieved at that.

“Of course not, she’s your daughter.” She said plainly.

“Yeah, but still…” He rubbed his massive arm, obviously a bit uncomfortable, making her wonder just how much he’d been hurt about his looks before he became Roadhog, the masked one man apocalypse.

“Your face isn’t frightening, Roadhog.” She told him.

She heard a short, bitter laugh, but nothing else, making her chest ache for him. As a doctor, external and internal wounds were something she could handle with ease. But emotional problems were far deeper and far more complex than even her nanobiotics could ever manage to help her heal.

“I mean it.” She said firmly, turning to look him as much in the eyes that she could through the lenses of his mask, making him stop and stare back or risk knocking her backwards. Bob gave his leg a comforting lick, as if trying to tell him that she was right and that there was no reason to fear life without the mask. After a moment of silence, they continued to make their way to her office.

“Ya know, only four people’ve ever said tha’ ta me,” He said softly, as if talking in a quieter tone of voice would hide the hurt in his tone, “’N tha’s includin’ you.”

“Well, maybe once I get your lungs all sorted out, you can add more to that tally.” She said, confident in that fact. His body language and his grunt alluded that he didn’t really believe her, but he continued to follow her until they reached her office door and she ushered him and Bob inside.

“So, where do we start?” he asked her as he took his seat on one of the beds, making it creak under his weight again as she pulled out a tablet and opened his file and a list she had made for when he decided to come to her for help with his lungs. (It _really_ bothered her, okay?) Roadhog picking Bob up and gently rubbing his back as he cradled him in his arms, the dog nuzzling into the supposed warmth of his arms and let out a content sigh.

Angela felt herself being envious of that dog for a moment before quickly forcing herself to focus, there might not ever be a second time she could get him in here about his breathing problems and she was _not_ going to mess this up!

“Well, that depends on what you’re comfortable with.” She said, finding that she was able to tell that her words surprised him and surprising herself a bit in the process that she could tell before he spoke up.

“Whaddya mean, ‘what ‘m comfortable with’?” he asked.

“What I mean is, simply based on what you told me before, about your mother taking you to acupuncture as a child to help with your breathing, that you’ve had this problem long before you joined the AFL.” He seemed shocked that she remembered that as she went on to explain that, “Since this problem has been around for so long, this will most likely not be a quick fix and I want you to feel comfortable working with me. If you don’t feel comfortable with something now, we can come back to it later.”

“And that would be okay?” he asked.

“I will need a lot of data before I can begin your treatment, so I am going to give you your options and you can tell me where you would like to start, alright?” she said.

He seemed to let this information sink in for a moment before finally motioning for her to tell him his options.

“Well, the first option is that I start with some basic scans of your lungs.” She said, “We’d start with your breathing with your mask and then I’d need to do some scans of you breathing without your mask and I’d want to see how you breathe when hooked up to your machine in your room as well as how you breathe when using your ‘Hogdrogen’ and I want to see how well you breathe when hooked up to an oxygen tank. I will also need to take a look at your mask at some point to see how it helps you and a sample of your ‘Hogdrogen’.”

He pulled one of the tanks he kept his exilir in from behind him and held it out to her, “Oh, I didn’t mean now, but Danke.” She said cheerfully, taking it with both hands, staggering a bit under it’s weight, and placing it on her desk before looking down to her tablet and checking off, ‘sample of ‘Hogdrogen’’ from her list, “Anyways, back to your options, the other thing I’d like is to know of any medical procedures you’ve had since the Omnium blew as well as any major health incidents. Winston managed to pull your old medical files from before then for me, but there is a long time between then and the files I have on you since you and Junkrat joined us.”

She also had his family’s medical history via Winston’s help to, but she wasn’t going to tell him that. She had a feeling that, when it came to family, both Junkers were quite sensitive about it and the last thing she wanted was for him to get angry at Winston for simply doing what she asked of him to get a better idea of their current state of health.

“Procedures?” he repeated, “Loike th’ koind ya get in a doctor’s office or somethin’?” he asked.

“Yes. I assume you’ve gone to the doctor at least once while you’ve been on the run.” She said.

“Not ‘til you gave us those check ups.” He said, “’N maybe a check up when we was arrested tha’ one toime, but you probably have tha’, roight?” She nodded in confirmation and he took that as his cue to continue, “As fer ‘major health’ incidents, ya mean loike injuries or soaking ‘nough radiation tha’ could have killed us? Or do ya mean loike Rat losin’ ‘is limbs?”

“Everything.” She clarified.

“We’ll be here all year.” He said flatly, “’N tha’s jus’ with th’ stuff tha’ happened while workin’ with Rat. Let alone th’ trouble I got in on me own fer twenty odd years ‘fore then.”

She shrugged, “Time goes by faster with good company.” She said lightly, “If we need more than just conversation, I can pull out a chess board and make some tea for a lovely game while we chat. Junkrat mentioned that you had a makeshift one at your home in Australia and had been teaching him how to play. So I must admit I am curious as to the kind of player you are.” She said, finally noticing the flesh not hidden by his mask on his head was red, however what exactly he seemed to be blushing at was unclear to her, so she decided to keep talking and maybe he wouldn’t explode.

“I will need to ask how your machine works as well, since I doubt you want any of our engineers fiddling with it.” she said.

“Rat fixes it from toime ta toime, jus’ loike ‘e fixes most of our shite.” Roadhog informed her, “Wouldn’ trust no one else ta fix it. ‘E moight have a plan of it somewhere, I’ll have ‘im get tha’ to ya as soon as I can.”

“That would be wonderful.” She said as she made a note to ask Junkrat about Roadhog’s machine as well as anything else he fixed for him.

“Anythin’ else?” he asked.

“Ah, yes. I know I said we could do many scans at once, but I still need to do just one scan to just see how your lungs are right now.” She said, “I won’t make you take off your mask or anything, I want to see if there might be any radiation damage inside your lungs to start as unchecked radiation damage could eventually become cancer if we’re not careful.”

“Prob’ly is.” He said, “Radiation damage, I mean. Roight after th’ radiation hit, could hardly breathe, it’s why Ches gave me th’ mask.” He paused and pulled the broken strap into view with a finger and thumb, “Ya foind any of ‘er files yet?” he asked her.

“We’re still trying to figure out her true identity.” Angela informed him with a shake of her head.

“…” he stared at the strap, uncomfortable as he gently rubbed one of Bob’s mangled ears.

Then it dawned on her:

He’d said that he’d met Molly’s biological mother back when they were both in the AFL.

_Before_ they were Junkers.

_Before they had Junker names._

“Roadhog… do you know her real name?” Angela asked him. He let go of the strap and looked right at her, allowing her to see a confirmation in his eyes through the lens before he looked back down at Bob, guilt radiating off his mountainous form.

“Roadhog, I doubt she’d mind you revealing her real name if it’s to help her daughter.” She told him, “If she’s as you said she is, she’d probably be glad you did so.”

She received a snort of disbelief at that as he focused on rubbing Bob, not making eye contact and occasionally shifting uncomfortably in his seat on the bed.

“Perhaps if you wrote her name down, I could say I figured it out using the data on Molly’s stick.” She offered, “It certainly would be better than having a moniker that could be used by anyone on her birth certificate.”

“…” Roadhog seemed to be struggling with the thought, twenty odd years of Junker culture warring with wanting to do right by both someone who he felt he owed and the little girl he loved so much, before letting out a sigh.

“Chelsea.” He finally said, “Chelsea Carroll. Tha’s Carroll with two ‘R’s ‘n two ‘L’s.”

“Like Lewis Carroll, the writer of Alice in Wonderland?” she asked.

He nodded, “Why do ya think she picked th’ name ‘Cheshire’?” he paused, “Well, tha’ ‘n th’ wide, devious smile she got whenever she felt loike bein’ a shite.” He looked up at her, “You saw it last week, when Molly asked if Rat wanted ta make bombs after I said we weren’t gonna have ‘Metra help us organize ‘er stuff tha’ day. It’s jus’ loike ‘er Mum’s. If I didn’ know better, I would have been worried tha’ she moight slice someone up loike ‘er Mum would fer a sec.”

Angela remembered the smile well, it certainly was devious and, now he had mentioned it, she could see how the smile resembled the Cheshire Cat’s from the novel before the last part of his sentence finally soaked into her brain, “wait, did you just say, ‘slice someone up?’” she blurted.

“Yeah, she had these long blades that she welded ta an old pair of brass knuckles.” Hog explained, “Used them loike long ass claws. Could slice through bots, bastards ‘n anything else standin’ in ‘er way.”

“I-I see.” She stammered as a violent and gruesome image of a taller version of Molly stood smiling that Cheshire smile above a pile of sliced up remains, blood dripping down the makeshift claws and splattered on her clothes.

It was a horrifying image and she was glad that Roadhog had made the choice to adopt Molly himself instead of insisting she be with her mother.

“Anything else you might need ‘bout ‘er?” he asked.

“Ah, yes, any known family?” she said, “There might be more than one woman with that name in Australia with a criminal record.”

Roadhog let out a snort of disbelief, “Not with _‘er_ record.” He said before looking right at her again, “She had a sister named Molly who was eight years younger than ‘er. She died a little ‘fore she joined th’ AFL, said if she ever had a daughter, she’d name ‘er Molly.” Angela smiled at him, both touched that he’d be so thoughtful in following Molly’s mother’s wishes when it came to her name and amused that he was now turning red as he realized that the reason he gave her in the first place was actually a lie so he wouldn’t seem like less of a tough guy.

‘Misreading the code name at first’ her ass.

“‘Er parents were fang carpenders at their own little place called ‘Cheshire Smile’ or some other bullshoite name back in Oz ‘fore they were killed by bots.” He quickly added, looking back down at Bob, almost as if silently asking for some help here, only to get a yawn in reply.

“Fang Carpender?” she asked.

“Dentist.” He translated.

Angela quickly typed up an email, asking Winston to check out a ‘Chelsea Carroll’, who had a sister eight years her junior and a family dentistry with a name relating to Molly’s mother’s moniker. That she believed that she could be Molly’s mother based on similarities in appearance and being in the right age range to have been in the AFL with Roadhog, and see if she could get a basic sample of her DNA to test against Molly’s and sent it.

“Thank you, Roadhog.” She said softly as she gently laid a hand on his and gave it a pat, “I know it’s against your culture, but I have a feeling that Cheshire will forgive you for revealing her real name to us if it means that her daughter can live a good life outside of Junkertown.”

“… She’ll still prob’ly try ta cut me open for helpin’ goive ‘er real name ta government toypes.” He groaned.

“Do you really think she would if it would make Molly upset?” she asked him.

“You really think I’d hoide behind me kid ‘n put ‘er in danger loike tha’?” he fired back, a bit offended at the accusation.

“No, but I doubt Molly would just stand by and let someone cut you up, either.” she replied coolly.

“… tha’s true.” He relented, he looked up at her and said, “Can we start by doin’ jus’ one scan with me mask on today ‘n go over some of th’ shite Rat ‘n me got up to then?” he asked, “Already took me mask off once today, not sure if I should do it again jus’ yet.”

“That is fine, but you will need to put Bob down on the ground for the scan.” She said warmily, doing her best to hide her utmost glee at finally getting started on this under her usual serene expression.

Roadhog looked down at Bob, and the dog let out a bark that he seemed to take as, “I’ll be fine, do what you need to do” because he carefully picked him up from his arm and lowered him to the floor as she began prepping her machines and firing everything up.

The scans didn’t take very long, as Roadhog followed her instructions obediently, much to her utter joy since many of the others here, like his partner in crime, often had a hard time listening to her instructions the first time and often fidgeted while being scanned, making her have to scan them again. (She couldn’t tell you how often she’d snapped at Lena to stay still whenever she had to do this sort of thing to her.)

In exchange for his good behavior, she asked him to wait a moment before walking over to a cabinet by her desk and pulling out an old chess set, “Winston, Reinhardt and I used to play whenever they came in here, so the pieces are well suited for someone your size.” She explained as she began unloading the box onto a nearby table and Roadhog picked Bob up again so he could sleep on the bed beside him as they started their game.

She found him to be an excellent opponent and found it surprising that he wasn’t the aggressive type of player in chess like he was on the battlefield. She would have thought he was the type who would go for the attack right away, but he, surprisingly, was more of a ‘keep all of my pieces alive’ kind of player, being careful to have his pieces able to protect one another at a moment’s notice, reminding her that Junkrat had hired him on as a _bodyguard,_ as in, someone who keeps others safe.

She found that it was easier for her to listen to his stories while he took his turn and ask questions during hers, eventually they just started chatting and laughing like old friends might, the medical reasons for hearing his stories forgotten. Not that there wasn’t plenty of silence the longer they played, about an hour and a half into the game, they became both silent as they scanned the board for a move to keep them going…

Until Angela had nearly knocked the board over in shock when Athena suddenly reminded them that it was dinner time. Bob jumped up into the air and barked loudly, just as surprised as she had been and just a little bit confused. Roadhog let out a snort at both of them as he gently placed his hand on the dog’s head and told him that it was fine and that it was time to eat.

She managed to restrain a childish pout at his announcement that they were going to leave for dinner. Their game wasn’t over yet and she wanted to keep playing, but, like them, she was also quite hungry, “Shall we continue tomorrow over tea?” she asked him.

“Sounds good.” He said, his tone happy, much to her own joy that he was enjoying this as much as she was. She carefully moved the board to her desk and began putting everything away while Roadhog helped Bob down and told her they would see her at dinner after he took Bob out to use the bathroom.

Angela smiled and waved as they left, only to finally remember about her tablet and the canister of Roadhog’s special medicine on her desk along with the chess board.

Over the course of their game, she forgot that he was here for help with his lungs.

She silently cursed at herself for losing focus but found herself looking at the chess board again, despite herself.

She was already looking forward to spending time with him tomorrow, to do something other than remedy his breathing ailment (the reason he was here in the first place today other than being here when she snapped his little girl’s nose back into place), and he had only _just_ left to take Bob outside to use the bathroom. She felt her cheeks burning as she wondered what was going on with her right now before her stomach roared and she decided that it would be probably be easier to sort all this out on a full stomach and made her way to the dining hall.


	31. First date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Symmetra, D.Va and Lúcio help Rat on his quest to pick out an appropriate birthday present for an eight year old.

The four of them strapped into Hana’s car, the anticipation so thick in the air Junkrat would bet that he could cut it with a knife if he had one.  
Although if that anticipation was from the excitement of shopping with friends or the anticipation of getting there quickly in order to get out of the car as fast as possible with Hana driving was evenly divided among their group.  
Lúcio once again sacrificed himself by sitting shotgun, leaving Junkrat and Satya in the back as Hana settled into the driver seat.   
Judging just by the devious grin on her face and the wink she gave him via the rearview mirror, he could tell she was about to do him a favor he’d gladly owe her for.   
And boy, did she deliver.  
She happily did sharp turns that allowed him to hold Satya close with his flesh hand and hold their position in the car with his metal one, as to make sure that she didn’t go smacking against the window or the door. He felt her wince as Hana slammed on the breaks at the last minute more than once, although he did spare Lúcio of whiplash by using his peg leg as a brace against the floor and the seat so he could still hold onto Satya and grab Lúcio’s shoulder to keep him from smacking his head against the windshield, cackling about how he was going to ask Roadhog to give her a ride sometime, that she’d love it. Hana happily agreed and told him that she’d also gladly race him if he was up to it. Rat laughed harder and warned her that saying something like that was an invitation for some Junker mayhem, which she told him that they’d probably need that to have a chance.  
Once they finally arrived at the town’s market place, Hana skidded into a spot along the street, smiling even with the painful, loud screeching sounds of her brakes against the pavement as they swerved.   
“Like a glove!” she said proudly when they were in. Lúcio let out a groan and collapsed back into his seat, his body shaking while Satya began saying something softly in her native tongue, sounding almost like a prayer thanking all of her odd colored Gods for keeping her alive during that ride.   
Junkrat opened his door and looked at her parking job and smiled when he saw that she had done a perfect job, despite her erratic method. Hana hopped out of her car and smiled triumphantly as she motioned to her car, silently bragging about her skills as Lúcio managed to pull himself out of the car.  
“I’m driving on the way back.” He said firmly.  
“What?!” she cried, pouting, ready to argue only for Rat to motion to Satya, who was still praying in the back seat and shaking, “I’ll buy dinner.” He offered as he opened the architect’s door and carefully helped her out of the car.  
“I’ll help.” Lúcio said. Hana paused, taking in her less chipper passengers before giving them a smile and saying, “Well, there is this Korean Barbeque place that I’ve been wanting to try for a while now…”  
“Barbeque? Now yer talkin’!” Rat laughed.   
“I thought you said only Aussies can grill.” Lúcio teased.  
“First of all, it ain’ called ‘grillin’.” He said, his tone a bit stern as he said that, “Also, while tha’s true, Roadie ‘n me had some while on our ‘world tour’, it ain’ got nothin’ on our work on th’ barbie, but it’s still pretty damn good.”  
“Interesting…” Satya said, seeming to have recovered quite a bit just by being outside of Hana’s car, “Then perhaps you and Roadhog could showcase these skills some time, I am quite curious to see just how good an Australian barbeque is.”  
“Tha’ a challenge?” he purred.  
“Perhaps.” She replied coolly, a hint of teasing in her voice. Meaning that she was feeling a little better, but her coloring was still a bit off, so he decided that letting her have some more time to recover was probably needed.  
“Well, challenge accepted!” he laughed, “Should prob’ly teach Molls how ta do tha’ too.”  
“She’s seven.” Lúcio reminded, “Roadhog’ll probably kill you if you let her too close to an open flame.”  
“She’s near an open flame every day in th’ workshop.” He said flatly, “’N Hog’s never had a problem with it.”  
Lúcio and Hana gave him concerned looks only for Satya to shake her head vigorously and explain that, “Torb and Brigitte use the forge a lot while Molly is in there with us. Roadhog taught her not to get too close because it’s very dangerous.”  
Hana and Lúcio sighed with relief, pleased that Molly wasn’t doing something crazy, like juggling flaming pieces of scrap or something. (Note to Rat from Rat: Teach Molly how to juggle. Not with flaming pieces of scrap, but maybe some regular scrap after she gets the basics down.)  
“Forge?” he repeated, “I was talkin’ ‘bout me!” he said, indicating the burned tips of his hair with a metal digit, “These don’ get loike tha’ from oil!” He paused, “Okay, sometoimes they do, but it’s not jus’ th’ oil tha’ makes it loike this...” he said as he rubbed his fingers on the burned tips.  
The rest of them chuckled before he went onto say that, “N’ I never said we’d let ‘er get too close.” Rat said, “We’d prob’ly teach ‘er how ta make marinades ‘n shite first. Start small, ya know?”  
“Maybe you should get her a little grill!” Hana joked.  
“Nah, think I’ll let ‘er Dadhog do tha’.” He said with a smile, “Can’ out do ‘er Daddy, now can I?” the younger ones chuckled before Lúcio pulled Hana away, telling them that they should probably make reservations for later before going to grab their stuff, telling them that they’d text them whatever time they could get one.  
Rat waved good bye and gave Hana a thumbs up before Satya pulled out her phone and looked up at him, “Are you ready to begin?” she asked,   
“I feel loike I should be askin’ you.” He said, “I mean, ‘m used ta crazy roides, but you ain’. I don’ moind sittin’ down somewhere ‘n makin’ a game plan ‘fore we get started.”  
She gave him a grateful smile before suggesting a nearby coffee shop. They went inside and ordered, he ordered a papaya boba tea (he had no idea what papaya was, but he liked boba tea and the barista assured him that it was good, so he was all for it) and Satya ordered some Jasmine tea before they sat down and Satya pulled out her phone and pulled up a file labeled, ‘Things Molly was Interested in’ before looking up at him, “Do you have a price range in mind?” she asked.  
“Nope.” He said plainly, “Can’ put a proice on an ankle boiter’s happiness, now can ya?”   
She smiled at that, “You bring up a good point, but it will make it harder to narrow down our options.”  
“Hmmm…” he said, leaning his head back, “Well, any clothes are out, you lot got ‘er plenty ‘n I dunno ‘er size anyways.” She nodded and swiped at her phone, her face calm and focused as she did so.  
“Prob’ly shouldn’ get ‘er any jewelry or nothin’ loike tha’ either. She’s still too young fer tha’ stuff.”  
“Hmmm… Perhaps not expensive jewelry, like one you would find at a jewelry store, but perhaps something handmade would be alright. It would have far more meaning to it, anyway.” She said thoughtfully, “Molly was quite intrigued at a small shop that sold semi precious and precious stones, with some wire or some metal, they could become little treasures to her.”  
“Semi precious?” he repeated.  
“Yes, such as turquoise, topaz and quartz, to name a few. Many people believe that certain stones have spiritual healing properties. Molly was quite fascinated with them.” She informed him, “Then again, it makes sense as to why.”  
“So she’s a feral Junker.” He joked, upon seeing her confused and slightly horrifed expression, he explained, “Ya know, loike free spirits ‘n all tha’.”  
Her eyes widened in comprehension and relief, “Oh, I see. My apologies, I misunderstood.”  
“No worries. But we should probl’y get ya up ta speed with Aussie lingo.” He said with a smile as the waitress delivered their orders. They thanked her before he then informed her what Aussies mean when they go ‘thong’ shopping (flip flops) and chatted a bit more about Aussie slang before finishing their drinks and heading out to the stone shop Satya had told him about.  
The place smelled like that incense stuff the Shimadas used from time to time, a bunch of smoking sticks in a small vase on the back counter confirming that was, indeed, the scent that was thick in the air.  
He saw drawers full of those incense sticks, organized by scent, stacks of homemade scented soaps and candles, he saw a few silk drapes on hangers on a single rack they had near the back. He found decks of cards and a few books, he found rolled up posters that showed points that you pressed or poked at to help with your health (he felt that was a load of shit, but he noted that some of the places on the posters were on the same spots as Molly’s bald spots used to be so he decided to ask Mercy about that when she had time.)   
But the main thing he saw were the stones.  
There were small wooden boxes that lined the walls along the left and right sides of the store, filled with stones of different colors and shapes and textures, little cards taped on the boxes to identify which stones were which and a little bit about what they helped do. There were tables pushed to the sides covered in giant chunks of sparkling crystals with large price tags underneath and tiny velvet drawstring bags in boxes on the tables.  
“Did she buy any of these?” he asked Satya as he picked up a stone labeled as a sapphire and squinted at it. He’d seen sapphires, they sparkled and shined in the light, this stone was dark and dim, rough and a little dirty.   
“Yes. She bought a piece of rose quartz that was cut to be shaped like a pig...” She said, indicating a small box filled with stones of varying colors cut to look like little animals.  
“Three guesses as ta why she bought tha’.” He teased as he put the sapphire down, a smile curling up her lips as she continued on to say that, “She also bought a bright piece of citrine and a small piece of amethyst.” She paused, then pulled a vibrant purple stone from her purse before going on to say that, “Which she insisted I hold onto for a while after the party, saying that it would help me. I don’t really know what she meant by that. I mean I know it’s suppost to be a protective stone but I still don’t understand why she would be so insistant on me holding onto it…”  
“Well, did ya tell ‘er you were goin’ out fer a bit?” He asked her.”  
“I believe I may have mentioned it to her, yes, why?”  
“Well, th’ last coupla toimes ya left th’ base, ya got shot at. She prob’ly jus’ wants ya ta have fun without a gun endin’ up in yer face.” Rat offered.  
Satya gently turned the stone in her hand, it was round and somewhat flat and roughly the size of a sixpence. It was a deep and vibrant shade of purple and she seemed almost entranced by it as she gently rubbed her thumb against it, a small smile on her face, “That is very sweet…” She stared at the stone for a moment before glancing to the boxes on the wall and pointed to a sign on a box filled with dark red, roughly cut stones. “Anyway, as I was saying before, she was also interested in one of these uncut rubies, but they were a bit out of her price range...” she said, indicating the high price on the card by the box of deep crimson stones.  
“I’ll bet.” He chuckled as he watched her place the stone Molly loaned her back into her purse as he made a mental note to give Molly one of the ones they stole from their many heists later so she wouldn’t have to buy one.   
Satya told him she would be on the other side of the shop if he needed her and he nodded and gave her a teasing little finger wave that made her smile widen on her cheeks as he looked back to the wall of stones.   
He looked at them, curious.   
He often found rocks to be just rocks and gems to be all shiny and sparkly. He never knew that rocks could be so colorful and bright. He saw something called ‘Peacock Ore’ that sparkled and shined with blues, greens, purples and golds, he was reaching for it when he noticed a box with the label ‘Amethyst’ on it not to far from it. He glanced over at Satya, whose phone dinged and she pulled it out and looked at it thoughtfully before he walked over to the purple stones and read the little sentence that explained what it did:  
“Amethyst: Also known as ‘Pope Stone’. It’s a stone of divine love, inner strength, stress relief, peace of mind and protection.”   
He pondered this new information. Molly had bought this on her first day out, after a lady hired by Hyde held a gun to her, so her buying something like this was understandable, a small little charm to help her stay safe and help protect her and the others around her while keeping her calm.  
But Molly had told Satya to hang on to this today, specifically, after the party.   
After her boss had shown up, ready to start trouble.   
And after he pissed the suit off, he hit Molly and his partner in crime nearly killed him.  
He went over the list again: Protection. Peace of mind. Stress Relief…  
Yeah, Satya needed all of those. He then edited his mental note to make sure that he gave Molly one of the biggest rubies they’d swiped for being so thoughtful. Because, while he had faith that the others would keep that bastard from making Satya’s life complicated contained, it was probably best that they cover all of their bases.  
He read the Inner strength and divine love part again, having a feeling that Molly probably intended for those parts to help Satya realize that Vishkar was dodgy and leave them and just join Overwatch. Then they could date without worrying about her being snagged and dragged all the way to India where her douchebag bosses would make sure that Overwatch would never hear or see her ever again. The thought of being a couple was one he’d fantasized about more than once, despite the fact that he really knew nothing about dating in general… But hey, he figured he could wing it a bit and eventually he’d figure it out, at least enough to make her happy…  
“Junkrat?” Satya called, making him jump a bit before turning to look at her, “Sorry, love, just tryin’ ta see how some of these rocks can be so dull lookin’ ‘ere when they’re all sparkly in th’ jewelry shops.” He said sheepishly.   
It wasn’t technically a lie. He was curious about that, but it wasn’t why he had been staring at them for… however long he had.   
“Oh, that’s because they are cut in a way to make them sparkle and shine.” She explained as she lifted up one of the dim looking sapphires, the white and blue on her fingers contrasting against the dark color of the gem, “They all start like this and a professional carefully cuts the stone and ships it to a jewelry store where jewelers put them in rings, bracelets, necklaces and other jewelry and place them on display for sale.”  
“Huh… Figured they jus’ came out of th’ ground all sparkly, no idea tha’ there was tha’ much work ta make it loike tha’.” He said thoughtfully, before saying, “This stuff is interestin’ ‘n all, but I ain’ sure if Roadie’ll loike it if all I have fer ‘is kid is rocks.”  
Satya chuckled, “A fair point, perhaps we should search in the store next door, they have soft toys that she seemed to think were cute.”  
“Sounds good.” He said as he followed her out, “So, uh, ya get a call or something?”   
“Oh, Hana texted me, she said we have a reservation at the Barbeque place for seven fifteen.” She looked at the time on her phone, “It’s five thirty right now, so we have almost two hours until dinner.”  
“They say when they’d be done with their stuff ta pick out gear for th’ costumes?” he asked.  
“No, but I’ll send her a message asking her to let us know when they were done if they finished before our reservation and that we’ll then arrange a place to meet up after that.”  
“Cheers.” He replied as she began typing, before saying, “Ya know, I never asked if anyone else bought anything from there last week.”  
“Oh, Mei and Pharah bought some soap. Angela bought a candle, Ana bought some turquoise, Zarya and Hana were admiring some of the bigger crystals in the tables and taking pictures. Brigitte was admiring a few of the smaller crystals with me.”  
“Oh, see anything ya loiked?”   
“A few things.” She said before pointing to the door of the next shop and ushered him towards it, deciding not to tell him exactly what she liked in favor of practically shoving him into the store.  
This shop looked like it was made for those who had a love of toys made for young children. It was filled to the brim with fluffy stuffed animals and what looked like hand stitched stuffed dolls in various colors and over half of them had long… hair? Fur? He didn’t know what to call them but they had longer fur(?) and were super soft. And while any of the toys here would have made a nice present, the two of them agreed that unless he could keep it from getting dirty from now until Molly’s birthday than it was a no go, so out the shop they went.   
Their next stop was a toy store across the street. They had been there all of about five minutes before the narrow, crowded aisles, the loud noises coming from the toys and the children and the parents calling their ankle biter’s names started to make Satya look as if she was about to either pass out or have a panic attack. So Rat carefully escorted his lovely lady friend (for now) out of the building as soon as he could, plopping her on a nearby bench and inspecting her for a moment before asking, “You need some water or somethin’?”  
“No, thank you, but thank you for asking.” She panted, obviously relieved to be out of there. He nodded and plopped down beside her, a bit upset with himself for forgetting how much she felt like she was suffocating in noisy, crowded places.  
“Sorry. Forgot you don’ do well in places loike tha’.” He said softly, guilt heavy in his guts.  
“It’s fine…” She said, obviously not wanting him to blame himself, Rat looked at her as if she was just as nutty as he was for a second. She was the one who needed comfort here, not him, what was she doing?  
“No. It ain’.” He said firmly, surprising her, “I don’ loike seein’ ya loike tha’, all uncomfortable ‘n shoite, jus’ don’ loike it. I should’ve noticed tha’ place was crazy when we first went in, but I didn’. ‘N ’m sorry.”   
He could feel her stare at him for a moment as he looked down at his peg and his boot before he felt her flesh hand take his, “Thank you, Jamie.” Satya said soft enough that only he could hear it.   
Rat felt his face explode with heat as he finally looked at her, his eyes wide as he looked at her hand in his, the explosion on his thumb right beside the turret with the gem on hers, almost looking as if it was showing a before and after of what happened when you got shot with one. Satya smiled at him warmly and gave his hand a gentle squeeze, “I am very grateful that you got me out of there.”  
“’Course I would, who wouldn’?” he asked, not expecting her to look down at their hands with a sad expression.  
“My instructors at Vishkar were quite harsh with me whenever I showed… discomfort in loud, crowded places, they often told me that my… condition was not an excuse. That I’d still have to be professional at galas and events filled with people and would have to learn to cope with all of it.” She explained quietly.  
“Condition?” he repeated, confused.   
She blinked at him, shocked and surprised, “Yes, I-I have autism.”  
“Th’ fuck is tha’?” he asked, he’d heard the word once or twice and Roadhog had punched a guy in prison who’d called him a retard and explained that it was a cruel thing to call someone with autism, but when he asked what autism was, the guards separated all of them and the two were sent to their different isolated cells, so he never got an answer.   
“You don’t know what that means?” she asked, shocked.  
“Not a clue.” He admitted, before he pointed to her with his metal hand, “But I know it don’ make ya any less dynamite.”  
Satya’s face burned red as her golden eyes went wide with surprise before she looked to her metal hand that was clutching her skirt, “T-thank you.” She stuttered.  
He smiled and gave her an extra squeeze before he pointed to a hardware store, pointing out that Molly spent plenty of time in the workshop and liked building things so maybe they could take a quick peek in there.  
The hardware store had some possible presents, but Satya vetoed the nail gun he looked at, depite his protests that it was for her protection since her piggy bank only had one shot in it last time. She also prohibited the mini chained hook idea he had, even when he argued that it could allow Molly and Hog to bond more and protect her at the same time, Satya retaliating that Molly could easily take her eye out with a chained hook. That statement was enough to make him put the chain he was holding back in it’s place, but it didn’t stop the pout he was sporting.  
“While it is sweet that you want to give her something to defend herself with, these are not things you should give a child!” she said firmly, “You give children alarms or whistles, not weapons!”  
“I messed around with worse things at ‘er age ‘n look at me!” he said, holding his arms out… only for him to remember he was down both limbs on his right side and that probably wouldn’t help his case. She seemed to realize this too and gave him a small, victorious smile that made his heart race on sight and a small, sheepish smile curled up his cheeks, as if silently asking for mercy.  
“Any chance I can change tha’ last bit?” he asked meekly. Her smile grew bigger as she crossed her arms over her chest and said, “Unfortunately not.”  
“What if I said please?” he asked.  
“Hmmm…” She hummed thoughtfully, her smile growing even larger.  
“What if I said please ‘n didn’ ask if we could look at th’ flame throwers?” he offered, his smile wide on his own face.  
“There aren’t any flame throwers here!” she said, laughter in her voice.  
“Electric saws then.” he said.  
“I’ll take it.” she laughed, holding out her hand for a handshake.  
Rat took her hand and gave it a good shake, “Pleasha doin’ business with ya, Miss Vaswani.”   
“The pleasure was all mine, Mr. Fawkes.” She said with a chuckle before gently pulling him by his hand towards the potted plants, which he dutily informed her could be her present to Molly, but not his, as he would probably somehow make it go up in flames without meaning to. She paused at this, pensive.  
“… You did burn Torbjörn’s new sweater when you were trying to put out your own flaming hair by dunking your head into the bucket of water he keeps by the forge…” she recalled thoughtfully.  
“Oh, tha’ was on purpose.” He said plainly, “Well, not catchin’ me head on fire, but th’ burnin’ ‘is sweater thing.”   
She stared at him, shocked with a smile she was desperately trying to keep from growing with a hand to her lips.  
“Wha’?” he asked, “It wasn’ handmade by ‘is wife or kids or grandkids or nothin’ loike tha’ ‘n it was fuckin’ ugly.” Satya slapped her other hand on top of her mouth, giggles leaking out from between her fingers as he happily added that, “’N I know fer a fact tha’ if I didn’ burn it, Brigitte would’ve. Heard ‘er say as much. Probl’y would have chucked it roight inta th’ forge as soon as ‘e turned ‘is head if it wasn’ fer me!”  
“So you did it to save her from her father’s wrath?” She teased.  
“’N ta save Torb from wearin’ tha’ fashion death sentence!” He declared with a cackle, indicating his own clothes, “I may not be all th’ most well dressed bloke, but when I say somethin’s ugly, it’s gotta be really bloody ugly!”  
Satya finally released her mouth and laughed, grabbing onto his shirt and her own stomach to keep her from falling to the ground laughing, the sound melodic and sweet to his ears, different than the wonderous sound of an explosion, but no less wonderful to him as he started laughing with her.   
Satya then suggested they leave this store before he got anymore ‘destructive’ ideas and try a book store instead. Knowing how much Molly liked reading with her Dadhog, he happily agreed.   
The bookstore was fairly large with many little private feeling pockets of space between bookshelves with a few comfy looking armchairs and tables scattered in them. A few patrons were wandering the many aisles while others were seated in the chairs, reading.   
It didn’t take long to find the kid’s section, as there was a sign hanging above each genre from the ceiling that was visible from the entrance and pretty much everywhere else in the store.   
Rat and Satya walked side by side, picking up books that seemed like something Molly would like and flipped through them. The two chatted about the art styles, the stories, books they remembered from their own childhoods, they chuckled at cute endings to stories and more as they picked up more and more possible presents until they couldn’t hold anymore.  
They quickly found a spot and began unloading the stacks of books from their arms when Satya’s phone went off. The two awkwardly managed to unload the majority of novels from her arms so she could look at it while Rat carefully lowered himself to the ground and gently placed his stack on the ground so he could admire the height his pile had grown while they hadn’t been paying attention.   
Satya held up her phone to him, revealing that she’d gotten a text from Hana telling her that she and Lúcio had found what they had been looking for and dropped it off at the car already and that it was almost time for their reservation.  
“Well shite.” He said, rubbing the back of his head, “We ain’ got enough toime ta go through all this...”  
“We did go a bit overboard.” She agreed, “But we can ask Hana and Lúcio to help us put all these away and come back with them later to hopefully narrow our options down a bit.”   
“Sounds good ta me. Call ‘um.” He said. She quickly typed into her phone and began speaking as he picked up a small pile of books and walked back to the kid’s section, where an employee was cleaning up a small stack of books and watched him, wide eyed as he began searching for where he’d found each book and put it away.  
“Sir, are you putting those away?” The employee asked, stunned.  
“Yeah, went a bit crazy tryin’ ta pick a present for me niece, have a huge stack of ‘um nearby ‘n dinner reservations comin’ up. Figured I should put back as much as I could ‘n come back later.”  
“That… that’s really nice of you.” The employee said, sounding as if they were about to cry.  
He looked at the employee with a look of both concern and confusion, “I guess?” he replied, “But it’s more tha’ you lot aren’ me babysitters ‘n cleanin’ up after me ain’ your jobs?”  
The employee looked at him, absolutely grateful, “T-thank you!” they stuttered before shoving the last book into it’s place and dashed out of the section, wiping at their face.  
“… Okay…” he said, a bit unsettled before Satya walked up behind him and said, “Is something wrong?”  
“I have no idea.” He replied honestly before going back to the task at hand. By the time they finished up their first stacks, Hana and Lúcio had found them.  
“You said you needed help?” Lúcio asked.   
“Yes, we went a bit overboard.” Satya said sheepishly, “We have plenty of books that we need to put away if we want to make our reservation.” She said as she motioned for the three of them to follow her.  
“Did you two actually find one to give Molly for her birthday?” Hana asked.  
“We hadn’ sorted through everythin’ yet.” Rat admitted, “Figured we could come back after dinner with you two helpin’ keep us in check.”   
“Oh come on, how bad can it…” Hana slapped her hand over Lúcio’s mouth, “Whenever someone says that, it’s usually pretty bad!” she hissed.  
“It’s pretty bad.” Rat informed them as they finally saw the damage.  
“Holy shit.” Lúcio said.  
“Told you!” Hana said sternly.  
“You should have known it was bad when the words are coming from a man who is often covered in grease and oil.” Satya chimed in as she picked up a stack.  
“Oi! ‘M clean!” he cried, indicating his surprisingly clean form before picking up another stack, “Would be cleaner if th’ damn soap didn’ slip out of me hand…”   
“How would that…” Hana began before her eyes widened in comprehension and she quickly picked up a small stack to avoid eye contact, “Oh, right,” she said, a bit embarrassed, “You’re missing an arm and a leg.”  
“Yeah, koinda hard ta keep me balance.” He acknowledged as Lúcio scooped up the last bit.  
“Why not just use liquid soap?” Lúcio suggested, “Then all you have to do is squirt it onto a washcloth and scrub.” He looked to Satya, “You only have one arm, you have any problems doing that?”  
“I used to.” She admitted, “Before Vishkar made my prosthetic it was hard to reach parts of my back and my legs, but thanks to my arm being waterproof, that is no longer a problem.”  
“Mine ain’.” Rat said simply as they made it to the children section and began putting everything away.  
“Don’t they have those loofahs on sticks for that?” Hana pointed out.  
“Th’ hell is a loofah?” Rat asked, wondering if today was a day of unknown vocabulary words.  
“We’ll explain it over dinner.” Satya said as she put her last book away and motioned for him to come over so she could take half of his large stack and put more away.  
By the time they managed to finish putting everything away and left, they had roughly five minutes to make it to the restaurant.   
So they legged it.  
Lúcio got there just in time and was looking quite pleased with himself as the hostess grabbed four menus and motioned for him and the rest of their panting group to follow her.  
They were led to a smaller room off to the side where it was empty and they were placed in a booth with high enough back rests that you could not see who was there, seated and handed their menus before the hostess gave them a humble bow, told them to enjoy their meal and walked back to her station.   
The food was pretty good, but Hana and Satya kept telling them how to eat properly… Okay, more like scolded Rat and Lúcio on how to eat properly;  
‘You’re going too fast!’ ‘You’re going to slow!’ ‘Don’t put your chopsticks in the rice like that!’   
Rat managed to steer the conversation to Molly’s birthday, which seemed to keep both women from jumping down their thoats about ‘the proper Korean manners’ and kept it to a light reminder whenever they were breaking one of the weird ass rules.  
“So you guys hadn’t picked out a book yet, where else did you two try?” Hana asked.  
“That stone shop we went to last week, the stuffed animal store next door, a toy shop, a hardware store…” Satya listed.  
“A hardware store?” Lúcio repeated.  
“She loikes tinkerin’.” Rat said defensively.  
“Tinkering does not require an electric saw.” Satya argued.  
“I said I wouldn’ get ‘er one!” He replied.  
“After we made a deal.” She recalled coolly.  
“Deal about what?” Lúcio asked.  
“Nothin’.” He pouted before poking at his food.  
“Okay,” Hana said, deciding to change the subject, “So I can maybe understand why you couldn’t find something at the hardware store.” Rat let out a grunt, “Or the stone shop, I mean, Rat probably stole bigger and better cut stones than anything in there…”  
“Struth!” he said, his smile back on his face at the acknowledgement of his massive horde of treasure. (That he would never reveal to Hanzo. Stupid prick grew up surrounded by treasure, unlike him, so if he was that low on cash, he should have snagged some of that before he left his shit bag gangster family if he hated them so much. It’d hurt their pockets and help his, it would have been a win win.)  
“But Molly seems to really like plushies, I don’t know how you didn’t find anything at the toy stores.” She pointed out.  
“Need something I can’ stain.” Rat admitted sheepishly, “Those fluffy things would turn black in no toime.”  
“And the toy shop was a bit overwhelming for me, Junkrat was kind enough to escort me out as soon as I started feeling uncomfortable and had me sit down for a bit and recover.” Satya admitted guiltily.   
“So that’s why you two went crazy in the book store.” Lúcio said.  
“Oi, we weren’ goin’ crazy.” He argued, “There were jus’ a lot of things there Molly would loike. It was hard ta decide which ones I should get ‘er.”  
“Ones?” Hana repeated.  
“Yeah, why do ya think Roadie has so many kids books in ‘is room? If she didn’ loike buildin’ things ‘n spendin’ toime with all of us, she’d of been done with all those books months ago!” he pointed out.  
“She’s actually reading at a middle school level now.” Satya informed them.  
“Really?” Rat asked, surprised.  
“Yes, she’s practically devoured every chapter book I’ve given her.” She confirmed, “I’ve been considering giving her Shakespearean plays to read, but I’m afraid the language is a bit complex for an almost eight year old who only started learning about the world and only just started reading within the past few months. Not to mention that the style a play is written in is far different than the format she’s used to.”  
“But she’s been picking up on a lot of stuff faster since we all learned about her powers.” Lúcio pointed out, “Actually it could be that her powers are what help her learn so quickly.”  
“It is.” Rat and Hana said in unison, surprising the other two at the table.  
“She told us that she’d pick up bits ‘n pieces durin’ lessons from our heads tha’ helped ‘er understand things easier.” Rat explained.  
“It’s why she learned to speak so quickly too, she could hear how to correctly pronounce things from our heads.” Hana added.  
“I just thought she was smart.” Lúcio said.  
“She is.” Satya confirmed, “She couldn’t speak, read or write a few months ago, but with our help, she can now speak as well as any other child her age could and can read beyond the average level of children in her age group. Her writing skills are still a work in progress, but considering her starting point verses her current status, it’s something that very few children, psychic or not, could accomplish in that amount of time.”   
“So, she a genius or somethin’?” Junkrat asked.  
“That would be difficult to prove due to the nature of her abilities, but I believe so.” Satya concluded.  
“So what do you get a genius fer ‘er birthday?” Rat asked the table.  
“A cell phone.” Hana replied, getting a few odd looks, “What? I was picking up a new one for Angela and realized that, if I got Molly a phone too, then she won’t have to borrow one of our phones when she calls whoever is out on a mission and can call for help right away if we need it. Plus if she gets lost, she can call us and tell us right where she is.”  
“… Are you sure it’s not because you loaned Molly your phone and she tried reading a picture book to Roadhog and explaining all the little details of the pictures and you didn’t get it back for two hours?” Satya asked. Rat nearly did a spit take of his water at the mention of that call, choking with a large smile on his face and giggles escaping from between his jagged teeth while Lúcio tried not to choke on his food from laughing, holding a napkin to his face so he wouldn’t make a mess.  
They had been on the mission with Hog when Molly made that call. The three of them were rooming together in Lijang and the two of them were chuckling as Molly gave him as much detail as she could and read every word slowly, doing her best to pronounce the words correctly. Roadie was quiet for most of the call, simply smiling warmly and listening to her via speaker phone the whole time (at her request so she could be sure he could hear her) and occasionally asking questions or telling her that she did a good job reading that last sentence, the three of them smiling as they could practically hear her glowing with glee from the other side of the world.  
“Or the time she did that and then fell asleep because it was late and you didn’t get it back until the next day and found that the call was still going through to Roadhog?” Lúcio managed through laughter.  
Lúcio hadn’t been on that mission, but Rat had. He remembered how Hog kept the call on the whole night, even after she fell asleep and they could hear her quiet breathing through the line, just to make sure she was okay after a long day with Mercy doing a few more tests and to see how she was doing, medically speaking. He also remembered being woken up by the sound of Hana shouting, “ROADHOG, WHY THE HELL DIDN’T YOU HANG UP AFTER SHE FELL ASLEEP?! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW HIGH YOU ARE GOING TO PUSH MY RATES UP?!” He then remembered Mercy telling her, “Hana! Stop yelling, you’ll wake Molly!” and hearing Lúcio, Satya and a few others asking why the hell she was screaming before the call finally ended.   
He then remembered snickering as he told Hog that he was gonna get it when they got back and Hog flushed, pouted, then threw a lamp at him and told him to shut the fuck up.  
He missed, but still, it’s the thought that counts.  
“No, but those are the reasons why I taught her about video chats.” Hana replied flatly, making the whole table laugh.  
“I made her a few mixes and got her a music player and headphones,” Lúcio informed them, “give her something to listen to while she works.” The rest of the table nodded and complimented his idea before Junkrat turned to the only other person who had not made their birthday present idea clear.  
“What did you get ‘er?” He asked Satya.  
“Oh, she seemed to like my ghungrus, so I got her a pair for her to play with. I also made her some walkie talkies…”  
“Walkie talkies?” Hana said, “Won’t a phone do the same thing?”  
“You complained about the rates.” Satya reminded her, “And she wants to join us for missions someday and I thought it would be nice for her to play with them around the base so one day she would be used to using similar technology when she’s older. It also would help when she has nightmares so Roadhog can come over and stop all those frightening noises that persist from her room whenever she seems to get them…”  
“What noises are you talking about?” Lúcio repeated.  
Satya opened her mouth to explain, only for Rat to motion for her to stop, “Allow me.” he said, deciding that it was best if he took over for this part as he explained that, “Roadie figures tha’ Molls’ powers go ape shit when she’s havin’ a noightmare, ‘cause after ‘er foirst noightmare ‘ere, he went ta tuck ‘er back in after calmin’ ‘er down ‘n ‘er room was a dog’s breakfast...”  
“What does Bob have to do with this?” Hana asked.  
“Nothin’, this happened ‘fore she even got Bob.” He said, only to realize why she was confused and informed them that, “Oh, roight, lingo. Sorry, back home in Oz, we call really messy spaces ‘a dog’s breakfast’.”  
The others nodded in understanding, Satya’s eyes showing that she probably tucked that little gem of an expression away for future use as he went onto say that, “We stopped puttin’ traps in ‘er room ‘cause of th’ damage they did ta th’ furniture ‘n stuff ‘n we didn’ want ‘er ta get hurt.”   
“Why did you guys put so many traps in her room anyway?” Lúcio asked, “I thought those things were to catch bad guys, not little girls who might have to pee at three in the morning.”  
“They are.” Rat said, “But think ‘bout it, if you were tryin’ ta nab someone while everyone was sleepin’ it’d be pretty easy roight?”  
“Maybe in Junkertown, but our security is outstanding.” Satya assured him.  
“Maybe, but old habits die hard.” He said, “Plus, made ‘er feel better ‘n it made us feel better, so it wasn’ really hurtin’ anyone at th’ toime.”  
Lúcio scowled at him, “I seem to remember nearly losing my leg while trying to get a glass of water while rooming with you two.”  
“You were foine, ya didn’ lose nothin’.” Rat dismissed, “’Sides, ya could have said ‘no’ when we asked if we could do tha’…”  
“You ever try to say no to Hog before?” Lúcio asked.  
“Too busy havin’ ‘im say no ta me.” Junkrat said plainly, noting Lúcio’s scowl, he did relent with, “But I get yer point, we can koinda be a bit intimidatin’, but ya dodged it ‘n we haven’ done it since whenever we room with ya, so…”  
“I still could have lost a leg though!” he cried, “Why did you put those traps there?”  
“Where?” Hana asked, curious.  
“Hopefully outside and inside all points of entry.” Satya immediately replied, “It’s common sense. That would be the most likely place an enemy would enter from, therefore, it’s best to have a line of defenses there.”  
“But what if they foind ‘nother way in? Or there or more people comin’ for ya and ya don’ have ‘nough traps fer all of ‘um?” Rat asked her. Satya made a confused face and he pulled out his notepad and a pencil and handed them over to Hana, “Pipsqueak, draw th’ most basic floor plan ya can with a bed somewhere inside.” He instructed.  
She drew out a square room with a door, two windows and a bed pushed up against the only open wall left, across from the door and on either side of the window.  
“Alroight, now let’s say ya got five traps. Each of ya make a mark where you think would be th’ best place ta put a trap ta keep ya safe in this room overnoight.” He instructed.  
The notepad went around and each person made a mark where they thought a trap should go. Hana made bunny heads, Lúcio made musical notes and Satya made little diamonds on the spots they believed to be the best place for a trap.   
Lúcio was the last one to make his marks before handing the notebook back to Rat, who looked at the placement of the marks. All of them chose places close to the doors and windows; Lúcio placed all of his inside, two by each window and one by the door. Hana put hers all on the outside, three by the door and one by each window. Satya put traps on either side of the windows and the last one on the inside of the door.  
“Not bad,” he commented, “But th’ best answer fer this room is this.” He said as he scribbled a smiley face on the inside in front of the door and the rest by the bed.  
“Easiest way in is a spot by a window or door where th’ walls are thinner, sometoimes ya can get in from th’ roof too. Depends on th’ place.” he explained.  
“Not ta mention that this way you protect the most important thing ya got, yer loife. So if th’ enemy’s main goal is you, but ya only have foive traps ‘n ya don’ know how many blokes are after ya. This way is the safest.”  
The others gave him a look.  
“Safest fer th’ one in th’ bed.” He clarified, “So, ya leave one by th’ door, make ‘um think tha’ they gotta be careful on th’ way in ‘n let their guard down once they’re insoide, makes ‘um less careful ‘n more likely ta fuck up...”   
He paused, figuring that a visual aid would be best here, so he tore a piece off of his napkin and moved it through the drawn window and towards the bed, “Then once they think they got th’ drop on ya…” he slid the napkin onto one of the smiley faces he drew and pounded on the table with his fist, “BAM! Ya got ‘um!” He then motioned to the bed Hana had drawn, “’Course, someone screamin’ from losin’ a leg next ta ya, ‘n yer up ‘n attum!” He explained.  
The group stared at him for a moment, making him feel a bit… well, strange.  
“What?” he asked.  
“Well, that explains why all the traps were by the bed.” Lúcio murmured before asking him out right, “Rat, exactly how many people have tried to kill you in your sleep?”   
“Too many.” Rat said simply as he slipped his notepad back into his pocket along with his pencil, “Why ya think I hoired Roadie?”   
“His witty repartee.” Satya replied immediately, making the rest of the table start snickering.   
“Tha’ too!” He laughed, the conversations then spinning into tales of his and Hog’s antics around the world before they finally finished their meal. When the bill came, Rat looked at it, pulled out the right amount of cash, plopped it inside, scribbed a smiley face as a signature and the four of them snuck out of the building through a side door to an outdoor eating area and walked back towards the book store until Rat spotted a store he’d never really seen before.  
“What koinda shop is tha’?” he asked, pointing to it.  
“An art supply store.” Satya explained, “They have things like paints, ink, paper, markers, fabric…”  
Rat stared at it, the gears in his mind turning as he stroked his chin thoughtfully and the others walked a a meter away before realizing that he was still standing in the same spot.  
“Junkrat?” Satya called, making him jump, “Are you alright?”  
“Yeah, ‘m foine.” He said, “Jus’ thinkin’.”  
“About what?” Hana asked.  
“Well, I was thinkin’ tha’ Molly don’ really have ‘er own art stuff. She usually uses stuff tha’ was lyin’ ‘round or left behind by someone else. ‘N while she seems foine with tha’, I wonder if she’d loike ‘er own markers ‘n paints ta play with.”  
Hana and Lúcio considered this thoughtfully while Satya beamed at him, “I think that is a wonderful idea.” She purred before she began leading the way towards it.  
The craft store was huge on the inside, with what seemed like miles of aisles of potental presents for a little artist with hardly anyone else other than a few employees walking around, meaning that they practically had the whole store to themselves.  
They grabbed a cart and weaved through the aisles chatting, laughing and watching Junkrat juggle a bit before passing whatever he had to them to put in the cart while they picked up paints, various types of pencils, sketch books, markers, pens, clay, paint brushes, glue, glitter, crayons, stickers and more until their cart was so full that it was quite possible that moving it would cause an avalanche of art supplies to flood the aisles.  
The young celebrities looked into the cart, shocked at how quickly they had gone overboard, “Huh, guess now I get how easy it was for you two to go nuts at the bookstore.” Lúcio said plainly.  
“How many things did we even put in here?” Hana asked, a bit freaked out by how much stuff she had grabbed.  
“Too many.” Satya said, her expression quickly shifting into one that meant business, “Hana, Lúcio, grab two more carts and bring them here. We are going to sort all of these out and decide which ones Junkrat should choose from.” She instructed. The two nodded and ran towards the front of the store, leaving the two of them alone with the cart as she began taking in the nearly overflowing cart in front of them.  
“Any ideas?” he asked her.  
“Multiple.” She said confidently as she picked up a small tube of paint, “I think a good way to start would be to stick with a set of paints that come together instead of getting so many individual ones. The same could be said for many of the other things we have in here. Once we pull all those out, we can then see where we can go from there.”   
“Alroight.” He agreed as he carefully began to pluck a few small tubes of paint and a couple of single, wrapped up markers from the top of the pile, Satya following his lead, her expression calm as they worked. Most likely because she was organizing and sorting everything so they could eventually be put in their proper places.  
Once they had two handfuls each, Lúcio and Hana came dashing back to them, each of them with a cart and Hana holding a basket, “For the stuff he actually gets her.” Hana explained, pleasing the architect that she had thought ahead to grab something for their final selection that was small to help them limit the amount of items they could approve.  
Satya then explained their plan to them and instructed them to place the individually sold items into Lúcio’s cart, the four of them quickly pulling them out and plopping them into the cart until they were satisfied that they had pulled out all of them, the cart halfway full when they were done.  
“Okay. So we have several sets of paints, I think getting ones that work on metal and paper would be best for now, since those are the mediums she uses most. Same goes for markers.” Satya said.  
“We should prob’ly stick with th’ packs with th’ most colors,” Rat agreed, “Gives ‘er more options.”  
“We should probably stick to only getting her glue that works on paper,” Lúcio suggested, “Can’t tell you how many times my cousins have gotten stuck to things because they used the super strong glue without supervison or permission.” The other adults nodded quickly, not liking the idea of Molly getting stuck to something possibly dangerous in the workshop.  
“And no glitter.” Hana declared, “Winston got mad that there was still so much in the carpet after we took that banner for Emily down, so he banned it from the base until it finally comes out of the carpet.”  
“You, Mei and Zarya dumped all that glitter on it, though.” Satya recalled.  
“Yeah, I know, but Molly dragged it around the base and it’s still pretty much everywhere. He says we’re not responsible enough to have it around us and if we get some for Molly, she’d probably be nice and share it with us.” Hana said, making Lúcio and Junkrat chuckle while Satya shook her head and grabbed the containers of glitter and glitter glue and placed them in the cart Hana had brought down, “So no glitter, no powerful glue, the biggest collection of colors and materials made to work on metal and paper.” Satya summed up.   
The sorting didn’t take as much time, but as they restricted more and more, they finally had a lovely sketch book, a pack of regular pencils, a big pack of colored pencils, a pack of colorful pens, a big box of markers, a bigger box of crayons, two packs of paint designed to be used by children, a pack of children’s paint brushes, a small container of glue, a small roll of tape and a pack of stickers with bugs on them.  
It was still a lot, all things considered, but compared to the amount they had in two carts and the little art supplies Molly had to her name, they decided that was fine.  
They ran around the store, almost making a game out of finding all of the things they hadn’t chosen and putting them away with smiles and laughter, making it one of the only times Junkrat could say he had fun cleaning (him cleaning up at the bookshop was more him trying to prove that he could clean up after himself for Satya, and they were kinds in a rush, so it was more of a thing to get done than a chore or fun), shocking a few more shop employees that they were putting the things they didn’t want away properly.  
After Rat checked out, Hana noticed that a few employees were cleaning up and taking their cash drawers out and walking towards the back of the store. She checked her phone and blurted out, “Holy crap, it’s almost ten!” As Rat walked over with his things, making him jump backwards a bit in surprise.  
Satya’s eyes widened as she looked at her own phone and paled a bit, “It is quite late.” She looked at Hana, “Would it be alright to look for costumes another time?” she asked her.  
“We have to, most of the shops here close at ten.” Hana reported, a bit upset.  
“Oi, no poutin’.” Rat said firmly, “We managed ta foind a noice present fer Molls tha’ is safe fer ‘er ta use, tha’s pretty good fer a couple of hours if ya ask me.”  
Satya nodded, “Agreed, that and it’s not as if we can’t search for those things another day.” She pointed out.  
Hana nodded, her expression disappointed as her head tilted downwards. Rat looked at his fellow thief and motioned towards her, his expression saying, ‘What are ya waitin’ for, mate? Charm ‘er!’  
Lúcio took his advise and placed his arm around her shoulder and guided her up the street towards where she parked earlier as he suggested that, “Maybe we can try again when that wig you bought for Molly comes in. That way it’ll be harder for anyone to know it’s her and we can take her out to help us look without worrying about someone trying to kidnap her. We can even make a game out of it, tell her we’re teaching her how to be a spy or something. You two can play that game you bought as training.”  
Hana seemed to be considering this as Rat and Satya followed behind them at a distance. Junkrat peering down at her hand every once in a while, the fake gem on her thumb sparkling in the light of the street lamps.  
Lúcio had Hana sit in the passenger’s side seat while Rat and Satya took the back again and, in the darkness of the backseat, he felt her hand slip into his again. He smiled broadly and gave her hand a gentle squeeze as he thanked everyone for helping him pick out a nice present for Molly.  
The three of them chatted a bit while they drove back to base, but he didn’t really pay all that much attention to what they were talking about.  
He was too busy enjoying the warmth of her hand in his.


	32. Worth it

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Molly makes it a crazy evening, but Hog finds that he really doesn't mind. McCree promises to stop talking about Roadhog's 'Whole Hog' and reveals how he lost his arm.

Roadhog enjoyed dinner and only that was only partly because the bots weren’t there. (They had decided to show their new nails off to Bastion’s bird and hadn’t really come back in since) Because, after Reinhardt accepted that he couldn’t take Ana out to her favorite place for her birthday, he simply decided to let her pick what she wanted to eat and he’d make it instead.

She’d chosen Italian for that night. So he and Pharah made pasta dishes galore and Ana suggested that Molly change before eating to not wreck another dress. Molly put on a red shirt and an old pair of jean shorts from her collection of Pharah’s old clothes before hopping into the line with the rest of them.

She happily tried a little bit of everything, covering her entire face and even going as far as streaking her hair with sauces and stray noodles as she dug in. Although it was obvious to him that the mess she quickly became came more from her playing with her food and trying to make the suit eating with them uncomfortable while entertaining everyone else, rather than the mess being due to her usual messy eating method…

Well, the stuff in her hair and near her eyes and ears, anyway, the mess around her mouth, hands and the tip of her nose was nothing new.

But, despite his obvious discomfort, he hadn’t said anything about her table manners, then again, the drongo who was wearing a t-shirt with the words ‘Ask Me About My Weiner’ with a picture of a hot dog on it and tight, bright red pants. So he didn’t really have any right to say anything about how anyone looked right now. Hog made a mental note to buy the cyborg ninja a beer for bringing the man those clothes and tell him that was the only thing they had in his size for him to wear, unless he wanted to sit in the shower room, naked, for who knew how long to wait for his pee-stained Vishkar uniform was clean, anyways.

He had no idea how the man hadn’t just decided to wait in the showers until his clothes were clean, but it didn’t mean that he didn’t enjoy the man’s discomfort...

Especially since he was thoroughly banned from murdering him until they had gotten more information on him, so yeah, he’d enjoy any suffering the man was put through right now.

He _had_ considered telling him that his star architect was going on what was basically a double date with his bomb-crazy partner in crime, the girl who had turned down his offers repeatedly and the thief who managed to get away with swiping precious Vishkar tech, but he didn’t.

He wasn’t going to wreck his friend’s chance to have a real, honest to God, _romantic_ relationship with someone who seemed to like him as much as he liked her just because he wanted the suit to suffer. Hell, even if they just liked each other as friends he wouldn’t do that to them!

Rat was young when the shit hit the fan in Australia, he probably didn’t exactly get a chance to make friends or have a crush or anything like he had been able to do growing up.

No, his friend had to focus on survival for nearly his entire childhood. And when he finally reached adulthood? Well, in Junkertown, friends and lovers were far more rare to find than fresh, non-radiated water and fresh fruit. Luckily Rat was a cheerful, friendly kind of bloke, and while he didn’t know when to shut up most of the time… okay,_ all_ the time, but he did pretty well here for a guy who had no real chance to make friends growing up. And Hog, as his first real friend, couldn’t ruin all his efforts and destroy his chances to have a relationship with someone who made him happy just for vengence.

A sharp, ‘ehem’ snapped him out of his thoughts of defending the secret of his best pal’s little romance from the suit and made him look towards the direction the sound had come from.

Surprise, surprise, it was the suit.

Sanjay Korpal looked from him to Molly, as if silently demanding he be a parent and set her straight about her table manners. Which half pissed him off and half amused him because, earlier in the meal, the dumb bastard tried looking at Hog as the reason for Molly’s awful table manners, only to see him using a spoon to keep his noodles from splattering sauce everywhere as he twirled his fork. The man watched, in shock, as Roadhog decided that he had enough food on the fork, placed the spoon down onto the side of his plate, lifted his mask and put the food in his mouth, he smiled broadly as he carefully then dabbed his gob with a second napkin he had by his plate (the first one was in his lap) and lowered his mask back down again so he could carefully cut his meatball with a fork and knife, all nice and proper like.

The look on the man’s face had been priceless when he finally realized that Molly wasn’t doing this because Roadhog had specifically taught her how to be the messiest eater alive.

Oh no, this was something the child had either learned on her own or from Junkrat.

Mei teased that Molly was the messiest eater she’d ever seen and Zarya built on that to say that she’d never seen anyone get so filthy while eating spagetti and meatballs in her whole life while Molly held her plate at a 90 degree angle to let gravity shove her food into her gob for her, splattering food all over herself, the table, her booster seat, her chair, the floor and a little bit on Bob, who had been sitting diligently at her feet after eating his own dinner. But, much like the rest of the people in the room, Bob didn’t mind the mess in the least, in fact, he happily inhaled the fallen food with fervor, his raggedy tail wagging so fact Hog was nearly surprised it stayed on his rump.

Hog happily watched as his child’s messy lack of table manners made the suit wince as if someone had struck him until he finally seemed to have enough. He stood up, slamming his hands down on the table to make sure the whole room had their eyes on him as he shouted at Molly to ‘eat like a proper lady and not a wild animal!’ before letting out a content sigh, as if he was happy to finally get that little gem out of his system before sitting back down to enjoy a bite of his dinner.

Roadhog nearly got up and smashed the bastard’s face in for that, but he stopped when he spotted his little girl’s cowlicks become sharp and an annoyed frown etched into her face from the foggy peripherals that his mask allowed him.

He watched with pride as his little girl narrowed her eyes at him, got up while still keeping eye contact, dumped the remaining spagetti and meatballs onto the floor for Bob to enjoy, and walked to the kitchen.

Hog felt a broad grin curl up his cheeks as Molly squinted at the man in the ridiculous get up with a determined pout after she climbed up on a step stool she and Torb shared (so she could see what she was getting and they could all see what she was doing) and began scooping ravioli onto her plate. She did have to break eye contact to carefully climb down with her food, but she regained it when she re-entered the dining hall with her plate.

She then looked up at him for a moment, holding up her plate to him in a silent, but polite request if he could please put her plate on the table for her so she could climb back up to her booster seat. He obledged, happily placing her plate on the table before carefully scooping her up and plopping her back down into her seat, the squishing sound she made when he put her in the booster seat making his smile grow a bit bigger as the suit winced at the sound. He chuckled a bit at that as he wiped at his hands with his napkin, eager to see just exactly his little girl planned to do here.

Apparently he wasn’t the only one who noticed the suit didn’t like the sound, because Molly continued to scowl at the man as she wiggled around in the filthy seat for a moment, _just_ to make the grown man squirm before she gingerly picked up her sauce splattered fork and knife and closed her eyes. Her expression went from angry at the man’s rudeness to her to serene and calm, her cowlicks slowly sliding to opposite sides of her head as the utensils slowly inched closer to the food…

Before she stopped them roughly an inch above her meal and happily tossed them behind her. She grabbed her plate and lifted it up off the table and gave the suit Cheshire’s favorite impish grin, her cowlicks looking like little devil’s horns before tilting one side towards the ground and the food slowly slid off the plate and onto the table.

Molly didn’t stop staring right at the squawking suit with impish delight until she finished dumping the last bit of pasta onto the table. Then she carefully handed Hog her plate, her smile now the usual, happy one he saw every day, her cowlicks back in their usual heart like positions on her head. He gave her head a gentle pat, Molly’s smile growing bigger before she turned to her food and practically dove into it like Bob dove into his dinner earlier, devouring ravioli much like a wild animal, even making sure to give each pasta packet a shake or two to splatter sauce everywhere before eating it.

After a few minutes of that spectacle, she then began shoving the pasta into her face by the mouthful, making the most annoying noises she could as she ate, Bob’s barking seeming to cheer her on as the room began snickering at her antics.

Hog watched in awe as she seemed to wiggle her way onto the table as she shoved the food into her face, leaving a trail of sauce and squished pasta behind her before managing to somehow flip herself onto her back as she finished chewing on the last bit of food before she gently pressed one of her fists to her stomach and let out a loud belch.

‘Tha’s me girl.’ Hog thought proudly as he watched her smile contently on the table.

Sanjay Korpal just sat there with his fork half way to his face, his jaw dropped, looking shocked that her bad behavior had escalated so quickly simply because of his suggestion.

But Molly wasn’t done yet.

After a happy pat to her belly, she got up, gave a little curtsy to the room and quickly climbed down off the table and onto the floor and ran over to the suit. But before he could say anything to her, she grabbed at his shirt, and wiped her hands and face on it. After removing most of the food off of her face and hands, she looked up at the suit with a proud smile on her face.

“How’s_ tha’ _fer eatin’ loike a lady?” she challenged as she let go of his shirt.

The suit’s look of absolute horror and disgust at Molly’s behavior was a wonderful sight to behold as his little girl skipped back to her seat and began trying to scramble back up by herself. He happily lifted her up and plopped her onto his lap, not caring that the pasta she had purposefully squished under her rump was now going to cover the front of his pants as he told her that, “You did good. Loiked th’ curtsy at th’ end. Very lady loike.”

Molly beamed at his praise for a moment before she stuck her tongue out at the suit.

The suit seemed to be in shock for a moment before softly asking if he could be excused and Winston sighing (more than just a little annoyed that he’d have to miss anything else his child would have in store for them) and politely escorting him to the bathroom, mouthing to Lena to film everything for him so he wouldn’t miss the good stuff.

The group decided to have the bare minimum decency and waited until the man left the room before congratulating Molly for her elegant way of telling that suit to get stuffed as well as laughing their asses off properly.

“I’m certainly glad you changed before doing that!” Ana cried, through tears of laughter.

“That had to be the most disrespectful thing I’d ever seen in my life.” Morrison said, looking impressed as he gave her a thumbs up, “Nice work, kid.”

“It’s a talent.” Molly informed him proudly as Mercy handed Molly a towel to clean herself up a bit more.

“We’re going ta have ta get more towels fer this place if yer gonna do stuff loike tha’, love!” Lena teased. A few more of them praised her performance, the little girl soaking it in with a joyful smile, before Ana apparently decided that they needed more than just Molly to keep them laughing, and told the room how this reminded her of when Pharah had decided to randomly stick her head in green Jell-O several times over the course of a day when was Molly’s age. She giggled while recalling how, because of this choice of hers, Pharah had somehow managed to dye her whole head green and that it took two days to wear off.

“It was a dare!” Pharah insisted, flustered as she glared at McCree, the most likely the one who dared her.

“You didn’t have ta take it!” the Cowboy blurted through tears of laughter, his body hunched over so his face was centimeters over his dinner.

“Tha’s better than when Brigitte shaved off an eyebrow by accident when she was taking a shower!” Torbjörn roared.

“PAPA!” Brigitte cried, embarrassed.

“I remember that!” Reinhardt bellowed tears of laughter streaming down his face, “SHE TRIED TO DRAW IT BACK ON WITH INGRID’S EYE LINER WHILE HER FACE WAS STILL WET AND IT DRIPPED DOWN HER FACE WHILE SHE TRIED TO ACT AS IF NOTHING HAD HAPPENED!!!” the mess hall was roaring with laughter while the two daughters of the elder members of Overwatch flushed at their shame. Meanwhile, his own daughter smiled with pride at her actions and didn’t seem to give a single fuck about how embarrassing this story might be when she got older.

“You remember when McCree got his tongue stuck to Genji’s chest plate?” Morrison asked, his voice louder than usual.

Genji and McCree’s faces fell at this part and quickly both cried out that, “IT WAS ALL LENA’S FAULT!”

“GUILTY AS CHARGED, LOVES!” Lena shrieked before falling off her seat, Hanzo caught her with an arm around her waist and pulled her back up, a devious expression on his face.

“Please, do go on.” He purred, eyeing his brother and the cowboy with an impish gleam in his eye, leading her to tell them all about how, while having a snowball fight in Alaska, she’d pushed McCree while he was blowing a raspberry at Genji and his tongue got stuck to the metal plating on his chest plate and how the three of them tried to sneak into the base to get some hot water to free them both before they got caught…

Only for them to end up freeing them in front of everyone and for Genji and McCree to be teased for months afterwards.

After a few more embarrassing stories, they all sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to Ana and enjoyed some cupcakes and some more of the snacks that they’d enjoyed earlier, all of them slowly recovering from nearly pissing themselves laughing, it didn’t stop them all from snickering when Molly smeared icing on the tip of her nose and upper lip, like a big blue mustache, and white filling on her cheeks like a beard when she happily chowed down on her desserts.

Upon realizing where there was so much gunk on her face, she lit up, “Look! ‘M loike Torb ‘n Reinhardt!” she said proudly. Lena quickly pulled out her phone to film her standing proudly with her dessert beard as the rest of them laughed as she shouted things the two elder members of Overwatch often said in bad renditions of their accents while pretending her spoon was one of their hammers and her plate was a turret or a shield or armor as she talked, getting chocolate crumbs and globs of icing and filling all over her arms and shirt as she did so and dripping sauce all over the table.

After about a few minutes of this, Molly was done mimicking the elder Overwatch agents and happily plopped back down onto her seat and stuffed another cupcake in her mouth, getting more blue icing on her face and fingers as she did so.

“I think someone needs a shower.” Mercy said as she looked the child up and down.

Molly looked up at her, not wanting to leave for a bath just yet, “But! But!” she tried. Hog took this chance to wipe off the new gunk on her face with the napkin he’d kept in his lap, being gentle as he wiped it away and Mercy told her, “No buts, you are covered in sugar, cream cheese, sauce and noodles!”

When he pulled the napkin back, his little girl was pouting at him with red, blue and white smudges still on her face along with a few noodles as she turned to Mercy, “Still think I need a shower?” she asked flatly, a noodle falling off her face and onto the floor that Bob happily licked up. Hog looked at his napkin and saw that it was splattered with sauce and a few noodles on it.

Oops.

Looks like his napkin caught more of Molly’s mess than he’d thought… And, now that he thought about it, he had plopped her in his lap right after she had made a show of wiggling in her food-filled booster seat.

Welp, he didn’t really help her as much as he thought he would.

“Yes.” Mercy said firmly.

Molly’s face puckered for a moment before an idea seem to come to her, Cheshire’s smile was back and just as devious as it was before as she then climbed out of her messy seat, her cowlicks lowered into most of her hair so only the tips stuck out on either side of her head again as she cried out, “GONNA HAFTA CATCH ME FOIRST!!” before running towards the closest door, laughing with Bob right behind her, barking happily at the thought of a fun chase.

Ana smiled, “Oh, this brings back so many memories as well...” She purred as the entire group stood up, chuckling and chortling as they raced down the hall after her.

It hadn’t taken long to catch Molly, but, to her credit, she’d managed to dodge a few of their attempts while leaving white and blue hand and red foot prints (and even a red butt print) everywhere she went before Roadhog managed to hook her and pull her into his arms.

The shock of the move left her silent for a moment before she smiled broadly and rose her fists into the air, “AGAIN!” she cheered.

“After a shower.” He said sternly as he put her down and Bob ran over to his little human, still trying to figure out how she managed to disappear from one side of the room and suddenly be in her dad’s arms on the other side of the room so quickly.

“But Da’!” she whined, looking up at him, her violet orbs pleading.

It might of worked too, if another stray noodle didn’t fall out of her hair and onto the floor and if she hadn’t made a path of crumbs, icing, filling, sauce and pasta in her attempt to avoid bathing.

“Th’ only ‘but’s I want to hear is yours gettin’ into th’ showers.” He said firmly. Molly pouted again, but accepted her defeat with grace and sad sounding, “Foine…”

Ana and Mercy walked Molly to the bathroom, Mercy calling for Bob to come too since he was also pretty filthy. Bob was far more cooperative than his little human and happily trotted behind Molly as the women began chatting about how Pharah had done the same thing when she was young when she was a mess and didn’t want to take a bath, Pharah’s cheeks red with shame and frustration as she called out, “MOTHER, ANGELA, STOP EMBARRASSING ME!” and ran after them.

The rest of them chuckled and quickly began cleaning up the mess in the mess hall. It wasn’t until they started cleaning up the mess Molly had left in her wake in her little escape attempt, when the ape returned with the suit, who was wearing different clothing. Luckily for them, it still made him look quite stupid. The shirt was white with two black circles with a dot in each, the word ‘boobies’ written underneath and neon yellow pants this time.

Hog didn’t know where the hell the ape had found those clothes, but he silently promised himself to find out so he, Rat, McCree and Genji could find more stupid, horrible and humilating articles of clothing to dump there for future assholes.

“What on Earth did we miss?” Winston asked as he leaned forward to inspect a long smudge of blue icing and tomato sauce on a nearby wall that Reinhardt was starting to wash off.

“We could ask you the same thing.” Mei said as she indicated Sanjay Korpal’s newest outfit.

“I managed to find some clothes leftover in the old lost and found in his size.” Winston explained, not needing to explain why they had been left behind before motioning to the wall again, silently asking for an explanation.

“Molly tried to make a run for it when we told her she needed to take a bath.” Morrison explained as he motioned for Bob to eat the noodles on the ground while he scrubbed at the icing on the leg of a side table.

“It was kind of fun though.” Hanzo admitted as he carefully scooped up a chunk of icing on the floor, the remaining members of Overwatch in the room stared at him, shocked. “What?” he said.

“Oh. My. Gosh. Zarya’s massage really _did_ loosen you up!” Genji cried.

“Of course!” Zarya said proudly, “My work as a body builder and weight lifter left many stiff and sore muscles, so I learned the art of massage to keep myself in top form!”

The Shimada’s didn’t hear her explanation, then again, most of them probably didn’t as they watched as Hanzo chased his little brother around the room, leading to them having another mess to clean up when the brothers little tussle broke the side table Morrison had just finished cleaning up and he finally snapped and pulled them apart by their ears.

After that, the suit quickly began helping with the clean up, muttering about how he couldn’t believe Symmetra hadn’t had a break down while living with the little demon spawn he had come to steal from them and asked aloud if it really would have been so bad to have taken her off of their hands.

As soon as he heard that he’d gotten a glare from 76 and the ape that said, ‘We know he’s a horrible human being, but no, you still can’t kill him yet.’ And many of the others began whispering amongst themselves, most likely planning non-violent forms of payback.

It didn’t really make him feel any better when the two seemed to send the rest of them the same look they’d just given him.

So, Hog decided to take a page from Molly and Rat’s books and get some petty revenge. He went to the kitchen and grabbed a pot of tomato sauce that he was about to happily pour the whole damn thing on the suit so he’d have to find an even more wacky thing to wear, only for Reinhardt to confiscate the pot and for Torb to shake his head, “We don’t need a bigger mess to clean up.” He said firmly.

Hog looked to Reinhardt for support, only for the German Giant to say, “We still have to be somewhat careful with him. Talon aside, if he decides to take poor Symmetra away, she might have to suffer his wrath in our places and that is not fair to her.”

Roadhog scowled as he looked to the suit, “Can I at least leave a trap outside ‘is room tonight?” he growled to them.

The two older men paused at this request, thoughtful.

“He does have a bone to pick with Molly and Lúcio, so it’s probably better that we have something to make sure he doesn’t try anything.” Torbjörn recalled, Reinhardt nodded in agreement as he took the pot back into the kitchen, telling Hog that, “We will discuss it with the others later. We still have much to do here before we can clean up ourselves, let alone figure out where our guest will be staying.”

Roadhog looked down at himself, noting that, while sitting next to Molly during her test of being the messiest eater on the planet, catching her, plopping her on his lap and helping clean up, that he was a total and complete mess, especially his clothes. Apparently his lap napkin could only do so much to keep _him_ clean as well, and it definitely couldn’t save him from when he hooked and caught his messy little girl.

“Great.” He groaned. When he had arrived and the others learned that both he and Rat only had one pair of shorts for clothes (and their holsters), Reinhardt had taken him while McCree took Rat out to get some more. And while Rat found plenty of things that could fit him, unfortunately, he was not so lucky. The big and tall store Reinhardt liked here had closed down over the years and while he’d taken him to a few places while out on missions when he could, even those shops didn’t have much in his size and Hana’d had little luck finding people who made clothes his size on the internet. So his selection of clothing was very little and he wasn’t sure if any of the stuff he had other than the shorts he had on would fit him right now (it had been a while since he’d bought them).

He groaned and helped finish up the last of the clean up before heading towards his room, and when he got there, he picked out a pair of green shorts, stuffed them into his bag and made his way to the showers for his second shower of the day, managing to catch Ana as she spoke to whomever was in the shower room from up the hall, “Remember, Angela, if you find any more pasta in her or Bob’s hair...”

“I think I got the last of it out, but Danke.” Mercy replied.

… Of course she would be the one showering with Molly when he came by.

He felt his cheeks heat up at the thought of Mercy in the shower, but he quickly scolded himself, she was helping him clean his kid and his mind went straight to the God damn gutter! The fuck was wrong with him?!

But, in his meager defense, it wasn’t as if he had ever felt about someone like he’d felt about the sweet Swiss doctor before, and while he’d had a few flings here and there over the years, it had been… Uhh… Christ, how long had it been since his last go?

“Roadhog?” Ana called. He nearly jumped, only to see the elder Amari smirking at him, “You spaced out for a second there, are you alright?”

“Jus’ wonderin’ how Molly and Bob got so many noodles in their hair.” He said, being careful not to answer too quickly or too slowly that she could accuse him of something, “I mean we all saw what _she_ did, don’ know how so much of tha’ stuff got on him too…”

Ana looked at him with a warm, motherly, knowing expression as she gave his arm a gentle pat, “From one parent to another, never underestimate the power of a child trying to make a mess. I tell you, Fareeha used to make the biggest messes, there was this one time she snuck into the kitchens and snatched up a big pot of cooling chocolate pudding…”

“MOTHER!!!” Pharah called from the far end of the hall, scowling and blushing as she held a wrapped package in her arms, most likely the gift she had gotten her mother for her birthday.

“Oh calm down, Fareeha!” Ana said with a wave of her hand, “Roadhog’s a man who can keep a secret or two, there’s no need to…”

Roadhog lifted his own hand and held it up to her, “I can listen to th’ story later, go enjoy yer toime with yer kid.” He said softly. Ana smiled up at him, “From one parent to another?” she asked. He smiled back (not that he was sure if she could tell) and nodded.

“Perhaps over tea then?” she offered.

“Sounds good.” He agreed. She turned towards her daughter, only to look back towards him, smirk impishly and whisper, “Angela’s wearing a bathing suit, so unless you feel like showing her this ‘Whole Hog’ I’ve heard so much about, there is nothing to worry about.”

Hog felt his jaw drop in shock for a moment, his face red before saying, “Wait, who th’ hell was talkin’ so much ‘bout me…” But Ana waved and retreated towards her daughter before he could finish. He sighed and rubbed at the back of his head, before he finally entered the shower room, making a small list of those here at Overwatch who saw his ‘Whole Hog’ and would dare to give details about it.

Rat had seen it, but even growing up in an ass backwards place like Junkertown, knew that looking at or talking about another bloke’s donger wasn’t something that one should do. McCree, Hanzo, Reinhardt and the ape had seen it once when the four of them, him and Rat had been cleaning up after a mission and the water came out all black and smelly and they all dashed out of the stalls and had to sit in there while they waited for the pipes to get fixed, the six of them so disgusting that they were not allowed to leave the room until they could clean up.

Hanzo, Reinhardt and Winston all seemed like the kind of blokes that had no problem keeping their mouths shut about something when it counted.

But McCree…

“You’re all clean now!” A sweet sounding voice sang, snapping him out of his thoughts and turning his attention to the only pulled curtain in the room, “Let’s dry you two off and get you into your pajamas, Molly, and then you two can wait in Roadhog’s room for him and then you can read your bedtime story!” Mercy said cheerfully.

“’Kay!” Molly replied, Bob following up with a bark of his own before he heard the slapping of bare feet and the clicking of Bob’s nails against the tile, the sound seeming to come closer to him as he walked further into the room.

He heard Mercy seem to help Molly and Bob dry off as he walked towards a nearby open stall, silently debating if he should call out to them or not.

He never really got the chance to decide either way because Bob decided for him.

Within an instant, the short, wrinkly mutt was running towards him with a towel draped over his back and his tail wagging as he barked out a greeting to him.

“Daddy!” Molly cried as she followed her dog, wrapped up in a towel as well, her hair still dripping and a big smile on her face as she held out her arms for a hug.

As much as he wanted to give her a hug, he instead held out his hand to stop them, “No. You two jus’ got clean, ‘m not wreckin’ tha’ after Merc’ worked so hard ta do tha’.” He said as firmly as he could, despite really wanting to lift them up and around after when they looked so happy to see him despite being only separated for what? Less than an hour, maybe? Anyways, it was cute but he needed to be firm here.

Mercy poking her head out from behind the curtain, her cheeks turning pink as she watched the two littest ones in the base pause, pouting for a moment before Molly looked back up at him.

“What if we found a clean spot on ya?” Molly asked.

“Good luck with tha’.” He said, only for Molly and Bob to start circling him in their towels, only to seem to forget why they were doing that for a moment before starting to laugh and chase each other around him.

He wanted to take his shower, but he also didn’t want to wreck their fun, so he just sort of ended up standing there, watching them. Mercy’s head peaking out from behind the curtain and covering her mouth in an attempt to hold in the giggles that bounced through the room until the two started picking up speed. Then Mercy called out, “NO RUNNING IN HERE WHEN YOU’RE WET!”

The two little ones immediately tried to skid to a stop, Mercy to emerged from the showers to help, wearing a red one piece bathing suit with a white cross on her chest, but Hog gently placed his hands out where their towels were and stopped them for her. The two then began herding them back towards the mostly closed curtain for Molly to finish changing, Mercy looking a bit embarrassed at her rushing out dressed as she was.

He honestly didn’t mind seeing that, but he decided it was best to offer up a change of subject, “When ‘m done, how ‘bout we read th’ next Captain Underpants book?” he offered.

“Captain Underpants!” Molly cheered happily as she entered the changing area as quickly as she could without being scolded again. “TRA-LA-LAAA!” she said before having a giggle fit as she held her arms out in front of her as if she was flying, Bob following right behind her and vanishing behind the curtain. Mercy giggled along with her and gave him a grateful, albeit bashful, nod to him before disappearing back into the changing area to join them, continuing her work of getting Molly dressed while he made his way to the stall next door and started up the water.

He heard Mercy ask Athena if someone could guide Molly and Bob to his room while she took a quick shower herself, Athena said she would, and a few moments later, informed them that Zarya would be over in a bit to escort her.

After that, the four of them stood in silence.

“Angie, you ever read Captain Underpants when you were a kid?” Molly asked, most likely just to not have to stand there in the quiet while waiting to be picked up.

“I’m afraid not. My mother didn’t think it was something I should read, but when I first joined Overwatch, I would watch Fareeha with Reinhardt sometimes and he would read her those books. He said he used to read them when he was young too.”

“Wow…” Molly said, amazed at how long the books had been around, “What ‘bout you, Da’? You ever read those books when you were a kid?”

“You kiddin’?” he chuckled as he started scrubbing his food covered arms and belly, “After I was born, me Mum went straight from the hospital to th’ book store to buy every single book in tha’ series! We read them so much th’ books fell apart!” he laughed, the soap bubbles bouncing off the pig on his stomach.

They chatted some more about books that he and Mercy had read when they were Molly’s age for a bit until Zarya finally arrived and walked them out.

Leaving the two of them there, alone.

Which was pretty weird because, well, putting aside his feelings for the woman who still could be in here for all he knew, while Roadhog was one of the few of them other than Molly and Bob who had been absolutely covered in food, he would have thought at least one of the others would have come in for a shower by now… Or maybe only their clothes and hands were dirty and he, Molly and Bob truly were the only ones who were completely filthy.

“Roadhog?” Mercy called, jolting him out of his thoughts and making her wet bathing suit bod pop into his mind again, unbidden.

“Yeah?” he replied, hoping that his mask would warp the squeak he had just let out with that word. He was so lucky the water was cold.

“How do you wash your face with your mask?” she asked him softly, “I mean, you said you can’t breathe with out it or the machine you use to help you sleep, so…”

“I take me mask off, put th’ one I use fer sleepin’ on.” He explained, “I also keep two wash cloths in me room, one fer scrubbin’ ‘n one fer rinsin’. Leave th’ spot under th’ air mask fer last ‘n do it quick. Why?”

“I was just curious.” She said, sounding a bit apologetic and a little embarrassed.

“Alroight then.” He said, letting the awkward silence soak in as he scrubbed at his icing covered chest a bit more, allowing him to hear that there were still two showerheads spraying water.

Oh, right. She _did_ ask Athena to have someone walk Molly to his room because she decided to take a quick shower…

‘… No,’ He told himself, ‘do not picture her in the shower! Do not picture her in the shower!!!! It’s bad enough the image of her in a ONE PIECE BATHING SUIT makes you all flustered, but imagining her in the shower is the WORST THING YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW!!!’

“Roadhog?” Mercy called softly.

“Yeah?” he replied, embarrassed and angry at himself for needing to tell himself this instead of being more like a gentleman and just not thinking about her in the shower.

“Do you have any shampoo I can borrow?” she asked, bashful, “I brought clothes and my body soap and shampoo, but we ran out of Molly’s shortly after starting to wash her hair and it took a lot of mine to get all of that tomato sauce out of her hair.”

He felt a chuckle rumble out of him, “I’ll bet she made it worse by not stayin’ still?” he asked as he pulled his industrial sized bottle (one of the few big enough for him to hold in his massive hands without crushing it and squirting shampoo everywhere) from the bench, where he’d put his soap and washcloth as well, and walked out of the shower and towards the curtain. He held out his massive hand towards the curtain she, most likely, was waiting for him… NOT LIKE THAT DAMMIT! WHAT WAS WITH HIM RIGHT NOW?!

“She certainly did, but she did it to help clean Bob so it wasn’t like she didn’t have a good reason.” Mercy laughed, he felt her tiny, slender fingers barely touch his own as she took his massive bottle into her hands, “This is quite the bottle!” she chuckled, “Danke!”

He took that as his cue to let go, carefully, though, just in case she didn’t have a good enough grip, wishing he could breathe well enough to be able to take off his mask for a moment to let the refreshingly cold water cool his burning cheeks at the obviously unintentional innuendo.

Was it even innuendo, now that he thought about it?

Ugh! The fuck was wrong with him?! He was in his late forties and here he was, reacting to everything that was happening right now, from accidently touching her hand to picturing her in the shower just because she was showering in the stall next door, like a teenager would! Then again, as a teenager, there weren’t exactly any sheilas who were interested in anything like like sex, bloody oath half of them ran at the sight of him, he never even got to hold hands with a girl, other than his mother of course but that was just embarrassing at the time…

The thought of his mother was just what he needed to snap out of his little daze.

He shook his head and forced himself to focus on scrubbing all the food off of his skin and not focus on how soft hers had been. He’d gotten so engrossed in his task, he’d barely registered that the shower next door had been turned off until he heard the changing area curtain being pushed aside and Mercy’s voice saying, “Roadhog, I brought your shampoo back. I’m going to leave it near your clothes, alright?”

“Alroight.” He replied, grateful that he hadn’t jumped in surprise. She’d definitely feel that.

He heard her walk away and waited a few beats until he was sure she was far enough away that he would not end up being naked in front of her…

_Again._

He then peaked out of the shower and quickly snatched the shampoo from the little bench in the changing area and reentered the falling water, grateful that it was cold so there wasn’t much of a temperature difference between going in and out again. He quickly washed his hair and finished up his shower.

He had a bedtime story to read and two tiny creatures to tuck into bed for the night and he could honestly use some Daddy-daughter time to get his mind from producing an image of Mercy in that swimsuit, running on the beach like from that super old show, Baywatch.

He turned off the water, dried himself off, got dressed, packed up his stuff and walked back to his room, eager to get inside.

When he opened his door, he found Molly, Bob and Zarya all sitting on the floor by the shelf of children’s books he had, both holding Captain Underpants books.

“These books were my favorites growing up!” Zarya laughed heartly.

“You can borrow it, if ya want.” He said from behind him, surprising the two girls and Bob, “We already read tha’ one ‘n we were gonna read th’ one Molly’s holdin’ tonoight, so it’s foine if ya borrow it.”

Zarya smiled, “Thank you, I will return it tomorrow.” She promised before giving Molly and Bob a hug and exiting with the book, Roadhog stopping her and grabbing another book from his shelf and handing it to her, “Mei’s almost done with ‘er’s, ya moind droppin’ this off fer ‘er on yer way back?”

The Russian smiled and assured him that she did not mind at all as she accepted the book and headed down the hall with a wave before making her way to Mei’s room. Molly and Bob were at his door, Molly waving her arms in the air with a large smile on her face and Bob’s tail did all his waving for him as Hog settled down on his bed to wait for them. He let out a chuckle as they scrambling up a ramp he’d made out of access scrap Brigitte had used to fix Reinhardt’s armor to join him on the bed and the two took their preferred places.

Molly sat on his right knee and Bob curled up on his left, the two happily settling in for a moment before Molly began reading, giving the characters silly voices, giggling and smiling as she spoke.

Until they were introduced to the villain of this book, then she stared at the page, silent.

“You stuck on a word?” He asked, a bit concerned that she hadn’t continued and was simply staring at the villain with a scowl.

“Th’ suit said you ‘n Rat were bad guys.” She pouted, “But you ‘n Rat aren’ bad guys! Yer not!”

He sighed, Mercy warned him about this earlier, but he still hadn’t been looking forward to this. He took a deep breath, he had to do this, he had to explain why they did what they did. No one else could… except maybe Junkrat, but he was the one trying to adopt Molly, explaining this sort of thing was his responsibility.

“Molly.” He said, “Remember all tha’ stuff we told you ‘bout loife in Junkertown? How we had to survive?”

“Survival of th’ fittest.” Molly said with a nod, “Doin’ what ya havta ta loive. Stealin’, foightin’ ‘n sometoimes killin’…”

“Roight.” He confirmed, “Th’ rest of th’ world don’ loive by those rules, we told ya tha’ to.” She nodded, which he took as his cue to keep going, “’Fore we came ‘ere, Rat ‘n I _did_ do bad things. Not jus’ in Junkertown, but all over th’ world.”

Molly finally pulled her eyes away from the pages and looked up at him as he admitted that, “We did end up hurtin’ innocent people, not ‘cause we wanted ta, but ‘cause they was at th’ wrong place at th’ wrong toime. Don’ make it roight, but we still did it.”

“But ya feel bad ‘bout it, roight?” She asked him, violet orbs wide and pleading.

“Yeah. We both do. I still have noightmares ‘bout those toimes. Rat usually left flowers fer th’ ones who weren’ supposed ta get hurt, but I’ve seen ‘im flail ‘round in ‘is sleep, ‘pologizin’ to ‘um.” He assured her.

She looked back down at the book with a scowl, “Tha’ bastard said all Junkers do is lie, steal, kill ‘n destroy!” She looked back up at him, determined, “But tha’s not true! Rat makes lotsa stuff ‘n fixes plenty of things ‘sides bombs! Loike me piggy bank! You usually jus’ make me snacks or tea fer th’ others ‘n recommend books tha’ they loike! Tha’ ain’ destructive! ‘N you two don’ always lie, you jus’ lie ‘bout stuff tha’ could hurt people. Loike th’ suit bein’ ‘ere ‘cause ‘e’s a Talon agent!”

Molly looked at her piggy slippered feet, “’N even though you killed people, it ain’ loike you want ta hurt everyone ‘cause yer evil or nothin’.” She started to curl up in a ball on his lap and started to sniffle and studder, “I-it ain’ loike I wa-wanted to k-k-kill th’ whoite ka-ka--coats back at Hyde… B-but I still da-da-did it even though I-I didn’ me-mean ta.” She stared at the villain on the page, “If we f-feel bad ‘bout t-th’ bad things wa-we done, don’ tha’ ma-mean tha’ we’re not a-all bad?”

“I loike ta think so.” He told her as he gently rubbed her back with his thumb, “Don’ think th’ ape woulda offered us a job if we were _all_ bad.”

“Yeah, tha’s true.” She said softly, wiping at her face with a small smile as she looked up at him hopefully, “Winston said ‘e called on heroes fer th’ recall.” She looked down at the book with a smile, “If a bloke in ‘is undies can be a hero, then so can us Junkers, roight?”

“Roight.” He agreed.

She looked back up at him, determined once again and her voice a bit stronger, “I still don’ loike th’ way people see us Junkers, so I’ll foind a way ta fix it! We ain’ all bad! ‘N ‘m gonna foind a way ta prove it! Even if it takes ‘til ‘m an old lady!” She declared proudly before closing the book and holding it up to him, “I swear on Captain Underpants tha’ I’ll foind a way!”

He chuckled and gently ruffled her hair, “Ya know, I think if any Junker has a chance ta do tha’, it’s definitely you, Molly.” She smiled broadly at the compliment, her cheeks pink with glee that he believed in her as they continued to read.

They were halfway through the book when Molly started to yawn and rub her eyes.

“Alroight, tha’s enough fer tonoight, toime fer ya ta go ta bed.”

“One more page!” she whined.

“Sorry love,” he said as he scooped her and a snoozing Bob into his arms and placed his little girl on the floor, “Come on, let’s get ya to yer room.”

“Foine.” She yawned, obviously too tired to keep up the fight.

Roadhog smiled softly as Molly clutched his pinky, her fingers barely curling around it as she rubbed at her eyes with her free hand and yawned as she dragged her piggy slippered feet, Bob curled up in his free arm as he escorted the two to their room, walking slowly to match her pace.

He stopped in front of the door and looked at both of his hands. Welp, he couldn’t use either hand right now, time to call for help.

“’Thena, ya moind?” he asked the ceiling.

“Not at all, Agent Roadhog.” Athena replied as she opened the door.

“Ta.” He said as he walked inside and walked towards Molly’s unmade bed and carefully place Bob on the bed before scooping his little girl up, placing her slippers by the side of her bed and putting her right next to her puppy before beginning to tuck them in.

“Hey Da’?” Molly asked him.

“Yeah?” he replied.

“Th’ suit crashin’ our bash asoide, th’ party was still fun, roight?” she asked.

“Yeah. It was really fun. You ‘n Hana did a good job plannin’ it.” he told her.

She smiled broadly, the day’s activities and events finally catching up with her as she let out one last yawn and finally succumbed to sleep, curling up with her puppy who nuzzled her as the two sank into dream land.

Roadhog let out a low chuckle at the sight and walked over to her closet and quietly pulled out a single trap before closing it again. He turned out the light with a soft “Noight, love” and closed the door behind him.

He walked down the hall, the joy from his little girl looking so happy fading as he made his way to the guy’s side where McCree was leaning against a door, his eyes widening at the sight of the trap.

“Guessin’ by th’ look on yer face, this is a no go?” He asked, disappointed.

“Morrison said it’s a hell no go, ‘n holy cow, partner, did you just bring that out of Molly’s room?” he asked, concerned.

“Yeah.” He replied plainly.

“That thing is fucking huge! I’m surprised that it didn’t snap her in half just from her breathin’ on it!” he cried.

“Me ‘n Rat taught ‘er how ta disarm it.” Hog assured him, although it was fairly easy to tell that it was not making him feel any better. He sighed, opened it up, put it on the ground and began showing him how to disarm it, the cowboy watching nervously as he did so.

Finally, after a few minutes McCree seemed less fearful and Roadhog supervised as he went over the instructions he’d been given, smiling when he managed to close the trap without getting hurt.

“Hell, if I knew this before, I probably wouldn’t of lost my arm!” He laughed, pleased with himself as he looked at the properly closed trap next to him on the ground.

“Ya lost yer arm in a trap?” Hog asked, surprised as he gathered it up, silently deciding to store it in his room until later where he could put it down without anyone looking.

McCree never talked about how he lost his arm. He’d remembered that Mercy’d had a fit when she saw he had a metal limb and asked him how the hell he’d gotten it since he’d had the arm last time she’d seen him. But McCree never talked about how he lost it.

“Kinda.” He said, “Was huntin’ a real nasty one up in Canada ‘n had ta run for it when I saw he wasn’t alone and had a bunch of goons with him. Tripped ‘n fell into one of their bear traps,” He held up his metal arm, “Hurt like hell, but I had to leave it behind or run with my arm and a bunch of bullet holes in me.”

“So ya left it behind.” Hog said, moving the conversation along, knowing that there was something the cowboy needed to get off his chest. And while he’d normally try to find someone better suited to listen to his problems and help him, he couldn’t help but remember his little girl’s words, _“We ain’ all bad! ‘N ‘m gonna foind a way ta prove it! Even if it takes ‘til ‘m an old lady!”_

Somehow, it felt like hearing McCree out was one of those ways he was helping her show that Junkers weren’t as evil as the world made them out to be, so he decided to stick around and see if he could help, if not, he’d get Mercy.

McCree let out a hum and nodded as he looked at his arm, his expression almost lonely, “Felt like a fool ta lose it like that.” He said softly, his voice wobbling with emotion, “Never found it when I managed to go back, doubted I would, but still felt like I should at least try to find it, I mean, it _was_ a part of me.”

Roadhog nodded in understanding. He never lost a limb, but being down a limb or two wasn’t unusual back home, hell, he worked for a man missing two limbs and probably a good portion of his mind (another thing one could easily lose in Junkertown).

He watched as McCree wiggled his metal fingers with a forlorn expression, hearing a few sniffles that the man was obviously trying to hold back as he stared at it, Hog bit back a sigh and sat down next to him on the floor.

“Sometimes I look at this damn thing ‘n wonder if I deserve it fer all th’ shit I did before I joined Blackwatch and after I joined Blackwatch. Sometimes I wonder if I should have picked prison back then when Reyes made me that offer. At least then I could’ve made up for my crimes…”

“Prison don’ make up fer th’ shit you done, it’s a place ta put ya so they can clean up yer mess.” Hog said bluntly, “Ya made th’ roight choice. So what if ya lost an arm? It don’ mean you ain’ a decent bloke. Jus’ means yer a Wally.”

“A Wally?” McCree repeated, confused.

“Clumsy. Clown. Idiot.” Hog translated as he counted the definitions off his large, piggy nailed fingers, “But most people get loike tha’ when outnumbered ‘n out gunned. Rat’s a_ huge_ Wally, but ‘e manages ta foind a way ta get out of it ‘loive ‘n foight ‘nother day in ways I still can’ believe ‘e pulled off, same as you.” He gently placed one of his massive hands on McCree’s shoulder, “If we were all defoined by our fuck ups, no one would get far in this world. It’s how we own up to them ‘n learn from ‘um that we show what koinda people we really are. Ya went back to th’ place where ya lost yer arm with ‘m guessin’ more ammo ‘n a better plan than before, roight?” McCree nodded.

“Ya get th’ bastard you were aimin’ for?” Hog asked.

The cowboy gave him a cocky grin, “’Course. Him ‘n his pals. Got paid a fortune too, was able ta pay off my new arm, among other things.” He said. Hog chuckled at that, his massive belly bouncing as he gave him a very gentle pat on the back, “Good on ya, then.” he said before getting up and gathering the trap.

“Say, Hog, ya mind if I borrow that?” McCree asked, “I wanna see if I can convince them ta let _me _put it by that Korpal bastard’s door tonight. I mean, I _do_ know how to open and close it without losin’ a limb now.”

“Only if ya stop tellin’ people ‘bout me ‘Whole Hog’.” He replied plainly. McCree seemed surprised that he knew it was him, only for him to give him an impish grin, “Or I could just only tell Angie.” He offered.

It was Hog’s turn to be surprised… and embarrassed, but before he could ask, McCree explained that he, “Overheard Hana.”

The mountainous man grumbled a few curses under his breath, making the cowboy laugh, “Don’t worry, I won’t tell! But I will warn ya, Genji might be getting over his crush on her, but Pharah still has a bit of a thing for her. So you might wanna watch yer back.”

“I’ll keep tha’ in moind. But I somehow doubt ‘er Mum would let ‘er try anything.” Hog replied, hoping that his words were true. Ana was a tough lady who still had a great deal of power over her thirty-something daughter and who seemed to be rooting for him, but at the same time, Pharah was her own person and fairly stubborn.

McCree chuckled at the comment and nodded in agreement, giving him a large smile.

Roadhog looked at the cowboy, recalling that Mercy had told him that he’d been picked up by one of the old leaders of Overwatch and brought here when he was barely of legal age. How he grew up in a place where crime actually did pay and it paid for your survival, not unlike Rat. This kid had lost his mentor and the closest thing he’d had to a father, meaning he lost both parents, also like Rat.

This kid was basically no different from any orphaned Junker kid back home. This thought seemed to sink deep into his chest and settle there, making him feel as if, maybe, just maybe, watching out for another young Wally wouldn’t kill him.

Maim him, maybe, but not kill him. Hell, he’d made it this far with Rat and Molly, and they hadn’t really made it easy on him so far with their lacking knowledge of the world around them, at least McCree was more aware of the world around him and knew how it usually worked…

He gently mashed McCree’s hat down on his head, “You feel all tha’ old shit gettin’ ta ya again, I don’ moind listenin’. Come by anytoime.”

McCree lifted the hat up a bit, his eyes wide with surprise, then his lids lowered halfway, giving him an easy going, but grateful smile, “Sounds good, but maybe we should do it over some time in the shootin’ range.”

“Sounds good.” He replied as McCree took this as his cue to scamper with the trap down the hall and dash around the corner to convince the others to let him put the trap up by where the suit would be sleeping instead.

Hog had a tiny voice in his head telling him that he was probably going to regret this as he made his way back to his room to read a few chapters of a book he’d been reading by himself before bed. But at the same time, he felt pretty good about what he just did.

And it helped to know that, even if this _did _come back to bite him in the ass, at least he’d know that the suit was now at just as big of a risk to get a bite taken out of him too.

He let out a chuckle at the thought of the suit losing a limb or two to a trap made by Rat, laid out by McCree and all that happening after a day of getting out smarted by Molly.

Yeah. That was _definitely_ worth lending an ear to the Cowboy any day, he decided as he closed his door behind him.


	33. Ach nein

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mercy has an awkward time in the shower and an epiphany a few chapters late.

After collecting her and Molly’s clothes and shower totes and heading into a nearby stall, Angela spent over fifteen minutes plucking pasta out of Molly and Bob’s hair and dumping it into a plastic bag that Ana had given her to put it in (so the pasta wouldn’t clog the drain). Once she was satisfied that there was no more noodles on their noodles, she and Molly began scrubbing her down and the little one made her laugh as she would open her mouth to catch shower water in it like it was rain drops and gargle while making funny faces at her, looking pleased with herself whenever she smiled and would spit the water out. Angela’s heart warmed at, feeling as if this was something she could happily get used to, enjoying quality time with Molly like a mother would with her own child…

Well, before Molly took the cap off of her shampoo and dumped the entire container onto Bob. Angela then had to snatch it from her and tell her that this wasn’t made for dogs, that it was made for people and she shouldn’t just dump it on him like that.

Molly argued that they didn’t have soap for Bob and that if she couldn’t go around covered in food, neither should he. She sighed as she promised to ask Winston to order Dog and Children’s shampoo in their next supply run before telling her not to do this again, that it could hurt his eyes if they weren’t careful, making Molly panic about hurting her furry friend and give him a soapy hug, apologizing over and over again until she told her that she’d help her wash him off so he wouldn’t get soap in his eyes.

After spending Lord knows how much time helping her wash the soap out, Angela finally went to wash Molly’s hair with her shampoo, only for Bob to shake his head and for Molly to immediately duck out of the way to check on him, concerned that he may have gotten shampoo in his eyes.

Now, if it had only been once it would have been fine, but this happened several times with Bob doing very little more than turning his head or sneezing for Molly to fuss over him. Leading to her using handfuls of her own shampoo that often slid off her wet hands before she could finally lather her hair and rinse it, Molly looking up at her as she did so, looking innocent and happy and grateful and cute and completely unaware of how much she had made this shower far longer and more difficult than it needed to be.

But it was so easy to forgive her as she told her that it was time for them to dry off, leaving the shower on so she could clean herself up after the little ones were done and carefully wrapped a towel around her and another around Bob, smiling warmly as she rubbed a second towel on Molly’s head, making her smile.

In retrospect, leaving the shower still running was probably how she didn’t hear Roadhog come in when he did. But she was blissfully ignorant of his presence in the room at the time. She had been just about to start covering Molly’s face with the towel and moving it away to reveal that she’d contorted her own into various funny faces to make her giggle when Bob started to bark and ran out of the changing room, the sound of jingling chains stopping her from calling out to the mutt.

She remembered her face flushed as her mind processed that, right now, she was in a room with him while wearing nothing but this old, not very flattering bathing suit as Molly let out a happy gasp and dashed after her dog, calling out, “Daddy!”

She bit her lip, uncertain if she should want Roadhog to hug his little girl or not, since while it’d be sweet to watch the little girl hug him like she hadn’t seen him in years (when it probably had barely been an hour or two, although it had felt much longer) or if she wanted him to stop her so she wouldn’t need to scrub Molly clean again. She felt relieved when she heard him tell them that she’d worked hard getting them clean and he wasn’t going to wreck that… as well as a little flustered that he’d been so considerate of her hard work… wait, how did he know she was in here and not someone else? She left with Molly, Ana and Fareeha, but then again, he had probably been in here long enough to hear her so maybe that was how he knew she was here?

But before she could say anything, Molly and Bob began skipping around him, giggling and barking and just being so gosh darned cute! She started giggling at their antics and smiled warmly as Roadhog seemed to happily watch them chase each other around him… Before they started picking up speed.

“NO RUNNING IN HERE WHEN YOU ARE WET!” she cried, watching in horror as the two seemed to try to slow themselves down and seemed to start sliding on the tiled floor. She raced out of the shower, ready to catch them, only for her to watch as Roadhog gently caught Molly with two fingers around her belly, his skin only touching the towel and making sure not to touch the edges, and one finger and a thumb to stop Bob, his fingers careful to avoid the edges again.

She watched, fascinated at how such large and powerful hands could also be so gentle as he carefully released them and started motioning for them to go back into the curtain to get dressed and for her to realize she was standing in front of him in the oldest, ugliest swimsuit she owned, which was probably covered in wet icing, spagetti sauce and maybe even a few noodles.

She felt her face burn with shame at having anyone other than Molly and Bob see her like this, but instead of teasing her like most of the others who live here probably would for her attire, she noticed that the parts of his face that she could see were tinted with red while his ears were a surprisingly cute shade of pink before he asked Molly if she wanted to read a specific book together after he was done with his own shower.

“Captain Underpants!” she cried happily before she dashed into the changing room, singing, “TRA-LA-LAAA!” and started giggling again, Bob right behind her. Angela gave him a nod, thankful before following them in and getting to work on drying them off, going along with her original plan to make Molly giggle while drying her hair before helping her into her pajamas and her piggy slippers and rubbing Bob dry, earning herself a few garlic scented doggie kisses before she asked Athena to call on someone to take them to Roadhog’s room as she gently motioned them to exit the changing room.

She then stood there, in the changing room, shaking like a leaf while she slowly removed the bathing suit, the cool air in the room and the fact that she had been wet when she exited the shower, leaving her with goosebumps as she removed the wet article and stared at it, silently debating if she should chuck the suit into the bag of pasta to be tossed into the trash or not when Molly started asking her and Roadhog about books.

It was a pleasant distraction and, after rising the suit off, she folded it and placed it on the bench next to her clothes as they talked before Zarya took Molly and Bob out of the room. Then she walked into the shower and found it to be eerily quiet with only the sound of the falling water around both her and Roadhog.

Then she made it awkward by asking how he washed his face when he had to wear his mask to breathe. He was polite and informative in his answer and while it didn’t really seem to bother him much, she still felt embarrassed about asking him how he _washed_ himself when they were _both in the_ _shower, washing themselves_…

‘In completely separate stalls!’ she found herself tacking onto that last thought, although she couldn’t tell you why. She bit back a sigh and had decided to keep her mouth shut as to not make it anymore awkward than she already had when she went to pour some shampoo into her hand and felt none of it fall into her palm.

Her eyes widened as she shook and squeezed the bottle, hardly getting a single drop out before she remembered just how much she had wasted trying to clean Molly up a little while ago.

Great. Just when she had decided to stay quiet, she was going to have to ask to borrow his soap.

While they were both in the shower.

_Naked. _

His bare form charging out of her office flashed into her mind and she squeezed the bottle in her hand tightly in surprise as her face started to burn, a decent size glop of shampoo coming out of the nozzle and falling flat onto the ground, sliding right past a foaming bar of soap on the floor that she hadn’t noticed was there until now.

‘Fick mein Leben.’ Angela thought. _Of course_ the last bit of soap would only come out to be wasted! Now she really did have to ask him.

“Roadhog?” she called, her voice a quiet squeak.

“Yeah?” he replied, his thunderous voice echoing a bit from bouncing off of tile.

“Do you have any shampoo I could borrow?” she asked, explaining why she ran out while wanting to curl up into the corner with that abandoned bar of soap and disappear.

She heard a chuckle, “I’ll bet she made it worse by not standing still?” he asked her as she heard heavy footsteps from the stall next door and soon heard the curtain part a bit from his stall. She quickly scampered out of her own stall, ignoring the goosebumps on her skin as the cool air hit her wet skin again, as she saw his massive hand holding a large, what looked like industral sized bottle of shampoo out for her.

Angela smiled, making a mental note to see if her preferred shampoo came in that size to save her from this kind of trouble in the future. “She certainly did,” she replied with a laugh, grateful for his kindness and understanding, “But she did it to help clean Bob, so it wasn’t like she didn’t have a good reason.” She carefully took the bottom of the bottle into her hands, her fingers gingerly brushing against his as she took it, surprised at how warm his hands were compared to the temperature of the water that clung to the bottle.

“This is quite the bottle!” she found herself saying, “Danke!” She felt the bottle slowly become heavier as Roadhog let go, the pig faces on his nails retreating from her changing room and probably back into his own, not that she went to check.

‘This is quite the bottle’? What was that? What was wrong with just saying thank you? Why didn’t she just say, ‘Thank you Roadhog, I really appreciate it’ or something? Why did she feel the need to comment on the size of his shampoo bottle?

Ugh, the spa day was supposed to be relaxing but all she found herself doing was stressing out about the littlest things!

She brought the bottle into the shower and began washing her hair. The shampoo had the lovely scent of plum tree flowers and eucalyptus and she happily enjoyed the scent as she washed her hair and toweled off, finding her hair to feel silkier than usual as she dried off.

Was this how he kept his hair looking so silky and nice? She suddenly wondered just how it would feel like sliding between her fingers. Would his smell like how hers did now?

… Mein Gott, was she just thinking about what his hair _smells_ like?

Yes… Yes she did… She was also wondering what it feels like sliding through her fingers.

Okay, she needed to get out of here and sort everything out before she said or did something she maybe shouldn’t.

‘Maybe?’ she asked herself, ‘Randomly wanting to slide your fingers through someone’s hair and breathe in their scent is not… Oh dear God, did you just think ‘breathe in his scent?’ What are you, one of the characters from the books he loaned you?!’ This was getting ridiculous. She needed to leave. She quickly got dressed and began packing her things before turning to the bottle of shampoo she’d borrowed.

Angela carefully picked it up and looked at the label, the brand was a name she’d never heard before but she thought the little piggy logo was cute…

Wait, wait, did Roadhog buy this brand just because it had a cute piggy in it’s logo? She held back a snicker at the thought as she made a note of the name of the brand and wondered what other scents they had. She then pulled her bag over her shoulder and walked towards the changing room next door, freezing for a moment.

How did she know he wasn’t on the other side of this curtain, naked?

She listened closely, hearing the sounds of the shower head streaming water and the sounds of Hog scrubbing and… was he _humming_?

The tune was alien to her, but it was quite catchy so it wouldn’t be hard to hum along if she wanted to join in… WHICH SHE WOULD NOT BECAUSE SHE WAS ONLY RETURNING HIS SHAMPOO AND THEN LEAVING BECAUSE VERDAMMTE HÖLLE SHE WAS ACTING WEIRD RIGHT NOW!

She quickly slipped into the changing room, deciding to just drop it there, thank him and leave, only to see his pants and holsters lying on the little bench in the changing room by his tote, neatly folded despite the food splattered all over them, his boots tucked underneath the bench and facing outwards.

And that was it. No underpants, no socks, just pants, holsters and boots.

‘_So?_’ She asked herself, ‘it’s not as if you didn’t know that before, he had to remove his pants in your office frequently!’ She felt her face burn at the innuendo and bit her lip as she gently bounced on her toes in frustration as she thought, ‘Not like _that_! To heal his bullet wounds! He did it so you could heal his bullet wounds!’

Angela shook her head, thoroughly frustrated that she was acting like this, she hadn’t had this much trouble being near with someone like this since… since… wait, when _was_ the last time she was like this?

She rifled through her memories, trying to pinpoint a time when she heard Roadhog let out a low swear and heard the tiles creak from beneath him as he seemed to move, reminding her that she, Dr. Angela Zeigler, was standing in the changing room of an _occupied shower_.

She placed the shampoo by his clothes and blurted out where she had left it and heard confirmation that he’d heard her before practically dashing out of the showers, her face flushed as she made it to her room and closed the door behind her, huffing and puffing and pressing one hand on her neck and looked at her other wrist at her watch and started taking her own pulse to see if her rapid pace was truly the reason she could hear her own heart so clearly.

She confirmed that her heart rate was above normal, but it didn’t explain the reasons for her actions and reactions back there and felt herself slide down her bedroom door and onto the floor.

She was lost. Completely and utterly lost. This wasn’t something her years of medical experience could help her figure out. There were no symptoms, simply reactions and thoughts, the only physical parts she could put a finger on was increased heart rate, flushed skin and making a complete and utter fool of herself.

She sucked in a breath, held it and let it out. Okay. Her condition was obviously not physical, but emotional or psychological, while she was quite good at psychological, she was hardly an expert in emotional, but perhaps she had something that could help.

She glanced around her room, her eyes landing on her bookcase. She got up and scanned the titles, frowning as she silently dismissed them until she finally huffed in frustration and flung herself onto her bed.

She laid there, fuming, before finally lifting her head and spotting the new book Roadhog had loaned her. He had only given it to her yesterday, but she hadn’t started it yet. She stared at it, uncertain, as Ana’s words from last week came back to her, “I have a feeling that there is another reason why you didn’t like her words back then.”

Could… could all of this be…?

Angela peeked at the book as if it would bite her and slowly picked it up, her hands shaking a bit as she turned it over and looked at the synopsis on the back.

The premise was simple, a Pediatrician was falling for a single father of a new patient and was having a hard time sorting out her feelings because they turn out to be her new neighbors… Huh… If she hadn’t asked him to loan her ones with female Doctor protagonists, she would get the funny feeling that he gave her this particular one for a reason other than her reading pleasure… Like sending her a message…

She shook her head, Roadhog gave her this book because she asked for ones with female doctors as the main characters and had been happily curling up at night and paging through every book he’d loaned her since she’d asked for a recommendation the first time and it wasn’t like he got new books often… or did he?

The sudden large quantity of children’s books probably had been something he picked up a few months back, but had he picked up any romance books since then? And had he picked up any since?

She flipped the book back around and looked at the image on the front, blushing doctor, smiling little girl and large smiling man…

Okay, yeah, it was starting to feel like something is coming through here.

She squinted at the author, a fuzzy memory of the name being on a few of the other books he loaned her and her saying how she liked the way this author wrote at their last ‘book club’. She checked the publishing date on the copyright page.

It came out this year, less than a month ago… the same date Roadhog, Junkrat and Orisa saved them from the armed Hyde woman in fact. Did he go to the store and pick this up for her after saving her, Hana and Molly from being shot?

Angela quickly flipped past the copyright page and started reading chapter one, desperately wanting a distraction from her incoming epiphany.

It didn’t help. There was a scene where the main character was washing the love interest’s kid off after she had been playing in what was hopefully mud and he walked in to see her wearing a ratty old bathing suit.

And then it hit her like a ton of bricks.

Angela liked Roadhog. And not just as a friend.

“Calm down!” she told herself in an attempt to plug the tidal wave of, ‘Gott im Himmel, what am I going to do around him now?!’ That was starting to flood her veins, “So you are fond of Roadhog, that doesn’t mean anything! I mean, it’s not like you’re lying awake thinking about him!” She told herself.

And with that, she turned off her lights and settled down into bed, hoping that she was right about that part…

Before she rolled over in shame, her face flushed and she kicked the covers up into the air in frustration with a bit back cry of dismay.

She couldn’t believe he’d seen her in that old thing! Ana and Fareeha were one thing, they’d been with her when she bought it… what, over ten years ago now? When she had volunteered to teach the local lifeguards here first aid. And while her vanity was satisfied that the suit not only still fit her after all these years, it was still a very old suit and, well, having anyone other than the Amaris, Molly (who had told her she looked pretty in it, the sweetheart) and Bob (who couldn’t care less about clothes) see her in it made her face burn with embarrassment.

But for some reason, having Roadhog blushing at her appearance made her more happy than embarrassed, although she still was feeling a giant dose of humiliation here.

Was it because he wouldn’t tease her about it like McCree or Genji would? Was it because he had been somewhat flustered at the sight of her in the admittedly plain one piece instead of something far more alluring in nature?

As she flopped back and forth in her bed, she felt somewhat pleased at herself for envoking that kind of reaction from the man just by wearing a very old, very old fashioned bathing suit, and very pleased that she was getting better at being able to tell what kind of expressions he was making behind his mask now. She only wished she had been able to see his expressions without the mask blocking the way and even smiled as she imagined the face she barely got to see once, bright red in color, with those pink ears of his! His scarred face contorted into a shocked, then bashful expression before herding his child into the changing room.

She rolled on her side and snickered at the thought, one hand on her mouth to stifle the sound and the other arm wrapped around her stomach as she laughed.

After another half hour of being curled up on her side, picturing possible faces he’d make and giggling, she looked over at her clock and saw that it was now two in the morning. She felt her face fall as she then rolled onto her back and looked to her ceiling, her cheeks burning, “Ach nein.” Angela murmured.


	34. When in doubt, get the fuck out.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rat has a nice chat with Lúcio and McCree before bed, but when he gets up in the middle of the night for a glass of water, he finds Molly and Bob in a rush to get to Hog's room and decides to step up and investigate what's got them spooked.

Junkrat and Lúcio wished the girls a good night at roughly 11:30 pm, the two walking down the hall, tired, but feeling pretty good about everything. The Brazilian DJ stopped at his door, curious as he pulled a sheet of paper off of it and squinted at the page, “Man, we really need to work on Molly’s handwriting…” he murmured softly.

“Give it ‘ere.” Rat instructed, holding out his hand. Lúcio handed it over and he looked at it. Knowing her like he did, he was able to read, ‘Made one statue, will make more later’, but he could see how it was hard for Lúcio to understand it when a majority of her letters were somehow backwards and/or upside down. He translated the message and Lúcio dashed inside to see the latest piece the little ankle biter had created, Rat peaking in the door way as the DJ slowed and stopped, bending down closer to get a better look.

“Que bonito…” he murmured, before looking back at him, excited, “Yo, Rat, come check this out!”

He didn’t need to be told twice as he entered, making note that the DJ’s room was far cleaner and less cluttered than Hana’s room, (Then again, his was a clutter cluster fuck, so who was he to judge?) before looking at the little marvel Molly had left him.

It looked like something from that super big museum in France that he and Roadie went to and managed to allude the cops by staying in the place for a week. (They would buy food from the fancy restaurants inside the place, Roadie telling anyone who asked why they were without shirts, that they were supposed to be here to do some living art thing and they kept getting lost and hungry, which they bought, surprisingly.)

The lady was thin with a fancy dress that looked as if it were made of old computer chips and broken bits of plastic that people used to wrap their tech in, her face was obviously handdrawn on what looked like brown paper by a child, but it added a bit of innocence to the piece. The statue’s white, wire hair seeming to hold up clear blue plastic squares with white symbols on them, as her hands gripped a round ball that had been scribbled to somewhat resemble the earth (Something he actually learned from that museum.).

Lúcio squinted at the screens, “Hey Rat, look at the little squares. They got Overwatch and Athena’s logos on them.”

He leaned closer and squinted a bit, seeing that, he was right, Molly had apparently taken great strides to paint the two symbols on these little bits of clear blue plastic.

“So, if she put th’ Overwatch logo ‘n Athena’s logo thing, does tha’ mean this is supposed ta be Athena?” He asked his fellow thief before the two looked up at the ceiling, as if silently asking for the AI to comment.

“Molly informed Brigitte that the image before you is indeed how she pictures me.” Athena replied. The two young men looked down at the statue before looking back up to the ceiling, giving the AI thumbs up and smiles.

“Looking good, Athena!” Lúcio purred. Rat let out a cat call whistle and the two chuckled a bit.

“Thank you, but you two know that’s not really what I look like.” She replied.

“Seriously?” Rat asked. “Then what do ya look loike?”

A screen suddenly appeared in front of them and they watched as billions of zeros and ones flooded the screen in an instant. The two watched this for a moment before Rat looked up at the ceiling and said, “No offense, ‘Thena, but I loike Molly’s version of ya bettah, less hard ta read.”

“Yeah. Same.” Lúcio agreed.

The screen closed, “Perhaps I may ask Winston if I can have a new Avatar.” The AI said thoughtfully, “It may be easier for him to listen to something that can emote and resembles something like him than it is for a glowing ‘A’”

“Especially one Molly could’ve written.” Lúcio teased before looking back at the statue, “But, aw man, I’ve got to show everyone this tomorrow! This is so cool!”

“Tomorrow sounds good.” Rat agreed before letting out a yawn, “Hoo roo, mate.” He said with a wave.

“Night Rat.” He replied, walking him to the door like a good host (according to Roadie), the two of them watching as McCree finished laid out one of Rat’s traps in front of the empty room across from Lúcio’s, looking pretty pleased with himself.

“McCree?” the DJ called, surprising him and making him turn around and look at them as he asked, “What are you doing?”

McCree’s expressoin went from shocked to the usual shit eating grin, “Oh, nothing much, just figured that, since he don’t seem too fond of you or the Junkers that a little insurance was needed.”

“You put any by the bed?” Rat asked.

“Nope, I wanted to but I heard some noises comin’ from here earlier that indicated that it was best if I did not enter.” He explained.

Rat and Lúcio gagged in unison, making the cowboy chuckle before indicating the two of them, “’N what were you two doin’?”

“Checkin’ out Molly’s statue of Athena.” Rat said plainly as Lúcio held it up for his inspection. McCree took it carefully into his gloved hands, holding it up to the dim light of the hall and the bright lights of Lúcio’s room.

“Damn if that girl don’t have some mighty fine talent.” He purred before carefully handing it back, “Although, after all she did tonight while you four were out ‘n about, I shouldn’t be surprised.”

“Aw, did we miss out on th’ fun?” Rat asked.

“Nah, but you missed a hell of a show! Athena filmed it all ‘n Lena ‘n me are gonna have a little ‘movie night’ in her room tomorrow, she’ll tell you what time.”

“Sounds great!” Lúcio said happily before wishing the others good night and closing his door behind him. Rat and McCree quickly followed suit with simple nods and smirks at the laid trap by the ‘empty’ room’s door before closing their own.

Rat plopped the bag full of presents by his closet before he collapsed onto his bed, replaying the events of the day and smiling, while the suit fucked a lot of things up, he’d had a pretty good day overall and he actually felt as if he could get a good night’s sleep.

Until about four in the morning when he woke up with his throat feeling drier than the bleeding Outback. He groaned and got up, grumbling various swear words as he slowly pulled himself out of bed and exited his room to see Molly dashing down the hall with Bob right behind her, “Woah, woah, woah!” He whispered, holding out his hands and watching as they slowed to a stop.

He saw tears falling from Molly’s eyes and that she seemed to be shaking while Bob’s tail was sunk behind him and he whimpered pitifully and glanced around frantically for danger. Rat lowered himself closer to their level and gently pulled them into a hug and let Molly cry and tremble into his chest as he rubbed Bob’s back with his flesh hand before finally guessing, “Have another noightmare, Molls?” She shook her head, surprising him.

Hmm… in his personal experience, if it wasn’t a nightmare, it was something that you didn’t want to remember when you woke up. Usually a bad memory you kept locked away and something triggered it to pop out for one night.

“Bad memory?” He inquired softly. She shook her head again, still shaking as she hugged one of her stuffed toys.

Okay, so not a nightmare, not a bad memory, maybe just something spooked her? Like a sound or…

He froze, remembering that McCree didn’t place traps in the spare room because of certain _noises_ coming from it and silently prayed to any God who would listen to his ass to _please_ not let it be that.

“Ya hear somethin’ scary?” he tried. She shook her head, much to his relief before he asked, “Then what, Molls?”

She looked up at him, her eyes filled with fear and dread as she whispered, “I dunno. But I jus’ don’ feel safe roight now…” Bob seemed to agree as he curled up by his leg and peg, whining as he looked up at him as if to say, ‘me neither.’

He nodded in understanding, there were plenty of times where he’d had that feeling and by following it by either avoiding certain things or just legging it, that instinct had saved him from carking it more than once. ‘When in doubt, get th’ fuck out.’ It was a simple motto that many a Junker had used to save his or her own hide, and Molly was no different in that regard. She felt the feeling and ran out of her room like a bat out of hell.

Actually, scratch that. She was different from most Junkers.

Unlike most Junkers, she had some pretty dynamite back up to help her when danger did come a knocking. And he was one of the many who would always have her back.

“Would it make ya feel better if yer Dadhog got ya some Milo?” he offered.

“Does Milo make th’ feelin’ go away?” she sniffled.

“Nah, but yer Dadhog can make whatevah’s makin’ you feel loike tha’ go away.” He replied, making her smile. “Come on, let’s get ya ta yer Da’.” He said, scooping her and Bob up and walking to Roadhog’s door.

“Hey Rat?” she whispered, “Why were you up?”

“’Cause I suddenly felt thirsty as all hell.” He said, then paused as they reached Hog’s door, “’N now I don’.” He realized thoughtfully before opening the door and dodging a trap, the loud clang of the metal waking his partner in crime up with a start.

Then, just to be a pain in the ass, he set off all the other ones in the room with a cackle, Molly even starting to giggle with him at the sounds.

“G’day!” Rat said cheerfully as he held out the little girl and dog to his friend, “Someone’s got a case of ‘when in doubt, get th’ fuck out’ ‘n she ‘n her pup could use ‘er Dadhog!”

Roadhog rubbed at his eyes, which was a little weird for him to see him without the mask, despite working together as long as they had. It wasn’t like his face was all that frightening or anything, it was just a face after all. It was just, he was so used to the mask being on that seeing him without it was like seeing his best mate naked, not something really wanted to make a habit of… But at least Molly had seen it so it wouldn’t be a shock to her.

He watched as the man groaned and his eyes opened wider to be able to completely take everything in for a moment before letting out a low thanks and holding out his arms for him to deposit the child and pup there.

Rat dropped them off and reminded his friend that, “Milo works wonders for a scared little sheila ‘n treats are great fer their pups!” before leaving the room and looking down the girl’s side of the barracks, his gut starting to twist as he made his way down towards Molly’s room.

Yeah, when in doubt, get the fuck out, but what if whatever the fuck made her feel unsafe came after her here, the one place she was actually safe? He needed to know what exactly was making her feel uncomfortable, not just because he was a good uncle… brother… whatever the fuck he was to her, but because her Dadhog was probably handling the hard part of comforting, soothing and finding either a way for her to feel safe sleeping in her room again or will have two tiny snoozing creatures he might spend all night worrying that he might crush in his sleep… despite the man hardly ever moving while he slept.

And, well, there was only one way to find out what exactly was so dangerous that Molly fled her room in the middle of the night to escape…

Hopefully he won’t lose another limb for this…

He quietly opened her door and found it was… Just as it usually was. Probably to her turning on her bedside lamp and running away without turning it off again. He carefully crept inside and peaked around the door, finding his and Roadhog’s wanted posters taped onto the back of the door with Molly’s messy scrawl saying that of course everyone would want them, they’re ace.

“Daw.” He murmured softly before checking around the room. Her rock, flower and hook collection was by the window, as usual. She had her dirty clothes in a basket now, huh, nice. Her shoes and slippers were all scattered on the floor, yeah that was normal for her too. Her bed was unmade, Bob’s ramp where it always was and… wait a tick.

He noticed that there was a toy on the ground and not on her bed, where she kept all the other ones. He paused and reached down and picked it up, revealing a small cube device that he could feel in the back of his mind he’d seen before but he just couldn’t place it.

He couldn’t ask Hog, he was busy being a Dad. But maybe, just maybe, a certain ape could tell him what it was… But he didn’t move. Something still didn’t seem right. He lowered himself to the floor and looked under the bed.

“Crikey.” He murmured.

There, in all it’s blue, shiny glory was what looked like a small box made of hard light. The exact size to hold whatever this thing was. He picked it up and placed the little cube inside of it. Perfect fit.

Besides Satya, there was only one other person who’d have hard light on them, and that was the suit who came here to take Molly…

Then he remembered where he’d seen the little cube before.

It was Sombra’s.

She used it to _teleport_.

He closed the little box up and scowled. It didn’t matter if she was with the bad guys or not, Sombra made it clear where she stood on kidnapping a child and making children soldiers to the witch the day he got shot. Would she really give something like this to the suit to help him do just that?

No. He doubted Sombra would tolerate the bastard anymore than he and Hog did today, and that was with the threat of losing said child to him via child services. So why did she give him this… or did she give him this so Molly could have a chance to be returned?

Or did the suit steal this from her in an attempt to give it to his bosses to fiddle with and then take credit for? He stared at the box, thoughtful. That drongo did seem like the type to do that sort of thing…

But why leave it here? He hadn’t exactly been allowed to really roam freely today…

Wait… What if the suit didn’t put it here, but Molly did?

Oh no… She probably took it because it looked valuable so she could get payback for him ruining all their fun and everything, but it actually contained a Talon teleporter. And while she didn’t know that, she got a bad feeling about it and that’s what scared her out of the room.

“Oi, Athena.” He called to the ceiling.

“Yes, Agent Junkrat?” the AI replied.

“Wake up 76, the ape, Nan, Torb ‘n Reinhardt. I jus’ found Talon ‘n Vishkar tech in Molly’s room ‘n I got a feelin’ tha’ things are gonna get worse in a bit.” He said firmly.

“Waking them now.” She reported.

It didn’t take long for them to arrive at the room as he showed them the items, holding up the cube to them, “Sombra used these when we did tha’ job with ‘er in Dorado. Slipped them inta th’ vault by claiming to be a rich sheila looking fer a new bank, we used ‘um ta get in. It’s a one-way ride, but with ‘er skills she could let th’ bad guys in ‘n lock us out of th’ systems. But this.” He said, holding up the hard light case, “Is what bothers me. Sombra said she wasn’ fer kid snatchin’, but if tha’s th’ case...”

“Why did Sanjay Korpal have it?” Ana finished for him as Torbjörn and Winston took the cube and it’s container from him and began to examine them.

“But why was it in Molly’s room?” Reinhardt asked.

“I think she nicked it off of ‘im, thinkin’ it was valuable ‘n ‘e’d get in trouble fer losin’ it.” Rat informed them.

“So she did it to get payback.” Morrison said, Rat winced, but before he could try to defend her actions, the old man continued to say that, “Well, it’s a good thing she did take it. Because now we have conclusive proof that he’s at least met with a member of Talon, other than the camera she found.”

“Camera?” He repeated.

“Yes, it was disguised as a contact lens.” Winston replied, holding the cube.

Torb narrowed his eyes at the hard light box and looked at Rat, concerned, “How did you find out about this?” he asked.

“Was gonna get a glass of water ‘n found Molly ‘n Bob leggin’ it ta Roadie’s. She told me tha’ she didn’ feel safe in ‘er room.” He explained.

“Do ya remember how Sombra made these work?” Torb asked.

“Not a clue.” He admitted, “Doubt she’d risk comin’ ‘ere, she don’ loike riskin’ ‘er loife if she don’ know what she was up against. But Molly wouldn’ of been tha’ scared if there wasn’ a risk.”

“Athena, block all signals to this device!” Winston ordered, “We can’t have any Talon agents running rampant in our home!”

Just as he said it, the box in his hand burst and what looked like a squeaky toy came through with a note that fluttered to the floor, Rat looked at it, he didn’t recognized the handwriting, but the others seemed to as Morrison knelt down and picked it up, eyeing it warily.

“Warn the kid that her bio-Mommy is on her way.” He read, “Then it says that the toy is a present for Bob for pissing on Korpal and ‘giving us a good laugh.’”

Rat was too busy staring at the message to laugh at the knowledge that Bob peed on the suit, his stomach twisting, his lungs tightening, his heart rate going at a ludicrious speed out of dread and fear.

So that’s the danger they had sensed.

Cheshire.

A woman third to maybe only Hog and Rat on Queenie’s shit list, and not for petty shit like they did. No, her crimes were soaked in blood and a frightening desire to be close to children, probably every Junker that ever crossed paths with her knew that, well, except for Hog anyways. But that was because, as far as he’d seen, Cheshire seemed to have a soft spot for him. Happily joking, teasing and flirting with him with him bluntly turning her down at every turn while having no problem keeping her in check. And unlike how she’d either cut or beat anyone else who tried to tell her what to, she’d actually listen to him and do as he asked.

On the one hand, since he seemed to be the only one who kept Cheshire from going to her crazy violent ways, she might see him taking care of her flesh and blood daughter as a good thing.

But if she found out that he hoped that Mercy would be her Mum instead… oh boy, he doubted anyone here would get off without losing a piece of themselves at the very least by the time she was done here.

Molly and Bob were wise to run.

“Junkrat?” Ana called, snapping him out of his daze and making him realize that he had started panting and was shaking.

“Junkrat, are you okay?” she asked, gently patting his shoulder, making him jump and her concerned at his reaction to the note before he shook his head and looked at the elders before him, “We’re roight fucked.” He told them.


	35. Cheshire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hog finally talks about Molly's mom.

The next week whizzed by pretty damn quick for Roadhog.

After Rat found some Talon and Vishkar tech that Molly swiped from the suit in her room, the shitty little bastard had become far more cooperative in giving the very little he knew about Talon before they sent him back to Vishkar with a clean bill of health and a threat that they had his DNA on the Talon gear as well as the hard light box he kept one of the pieces in. If he tried to pull Symmetra or funding, they’d show his bosses that he had tried to work with a well known terrorist cell and share their tech with them.

The suit had apparently left with his lips pursed tightly in a furious expression.

Not that Hog had been around to enjoy it, he’d been sent out on a mission in Hollywood as a bodyguard… for a fucking bot.

Oh, how it made him boil inside to have to protect that shiny, whiny little ‘artist’.

_Artist?_

Oh _please_, his seven year old made more impressive art than this bucket of spare parts, hell, his seven year old could probably make a fantastic piece out of the annoying little pile of scrap. But, he kept his mouth shut, and did the job.

It helped having Symmetra, Lena, Genji around to keep him on task and give him small outlets and breaks to cool off. And, hell, it was nice just to have a _pleasant_ bot like Orisa with him (Bot or not, she was at least chipper, polite, and understood that he liked having his space and was respectful of that), but it was Brigitte, freshly granted field duty with the rest of them, that kept him from trashing that heap of metal most of the time.

She kept him occupied with questions about what he planned to do on Molly’s birthday, telling him that she made her a little shield like Reinhardt’s and hers to take with her in case someone tried to shoot at her while she was in town again, and that her mother, siblings and nieces and nephew (yes, she only had one) were all really excited to meet Molly and told him all about them.

It really helped hearing things like that when the Bot would loudly whisper if having a Junker around was really the best idea and basically talking shit about him. Now, he was used to shit talking, but he was usually allowed to trash the fucker who did it and it normally did not come from a _bot_. So it was often all hands on deck to keep him from decking him, but it was _Orisa_ who often set the other bot straight. Telling him that he was being rude or that, as someone who was often looked down upon for the way he was, he should know better than to do the same to others.

He made a mental note to find a way to repay her for making that bot stutter back at her comments. He ended up doing that by buying her a giant scarf covered in cartoon puppies that she had been admiring in a shop that they kept passing between going to the set and going to interviews in the days before the premiere. He gave it to her on the day of the premiere (he laid low when they finally got the bot to the red carpet and snuck in through the back and then used the ticket he was given.) Orisa was so happy that she had something to dress up in for the event and happily took pictures with cheerful and friendly celebrities along with the others. Some of them asking where she had gotten it, but since he told her not to specifically say it was him, she simply beamed said it was a from a friend.

They didn’t get back until two days before Molly’s birthday. He watched Rat lean on a crate and chuckle as Molly and Bob happily greeted everyone, Molly by giving big hugs and asking excited questions about their time in Hollywood while Bob simply gave doggie kisses to whatever skin/metal he could.

Lena was the first one out, which was unusual, but she was eager for her hugs and doggie kisses, she was followed by Genji, Brigitte, Symmetra and Orisa. Molly happily admired the scarf with Orisa, telling her that whoever gave it to her had great tastes before taking a picture together with Bob for her to send to Efi and then another one with Lena to send to Emily.

Hog took this time to finally exit the ship. Smiling as he watched his child running up the steps to him and latching onto his leg with a broad smile and a cry of ‘DADDY!’ and nuzzling him as the dog happily barked while running around him in circles, his tail wagging wildly with glee.

Now _this_ was a welcome home he could happily get used to.

They all chuckled a bit at this while they watched Hog carefully climbed down while not stepping on Bob or sending his happy little girl tumbling down the steps.

His best friend waited until they reached the bottom and Bob wore himself out a bit before welcoming him back with a slap on the shoulder before leading the way inside as Molly told him all about her new statues she made and how excited she was to play with him again and asking if Hollywood fun while the others chuckled behind him.

He nodded and passed her along a souvenir of a poster of a film that Hana had done the year before, working there between missions, that hadn’t come out just yet. Molly finally unlatched herself from his leg and happily took it, admired it, hugged it, then hugged him again and thanked him for the present. Happily running on ahead with Orisa to show off the presents he’d gotten them to anyone they could find, Bob happily sprinting behind them as they rounded a corner and dashed out of sight, laughing and barking while the rest of them headed to their rooms to unpack…

With Rat sticking with him and while it wasn’t unusual for the two Junkers to simply stick with one another, ever since Molly came around, the two had been enjoying the company of others and feeling more like parts of the team than simple mercenaries. But, due to the flammable Junker’s crush on Symmetra, Hog figured that his lanky pal would’ve followed her around like a love sick puppy the moment she got off the drop ship.

But he didn’t.

He instead caught him up on anything Molly did that she didn’t tell him in her long nightly (for him, Gibraltar is 9 hours ahead) phone calls (on Rat’s phone this time, not Hana’s) and showed him some pictures of his little girl being happy and cute with her puppy that he had been unable to send due to these long calls. Waiting until they got into his room to lean against his wall, silent as Roadhog unpacked the few things he’d brought with him and all the soap and towels he stole from the hotel they’d stayed in.

“Merc asked me ‘bout Cheshire.” He told him as he picked up a small bottle of conditioner and began fiddling with it.

“’N?” he asked as he pulled out the last couple of things from his bag and stuffed it under his bed.

“Told ‘er ‘bout what I’d heard ‘fore I met ‘er. Told ‘er ‘bout how I met ‘er. Told her tha’ I doubted tha’ she’d be too mad at ya fer takin’ care of Molly, since she trusts ya more than anyone else as far as I know, but tha’ I was a little worried ‘bout th’ rest of us ‘ere.” He explained as he kept his eyes focused on the little bottle.

“What does tha’ mean?” he growled, not liking the way that last bit sounded.

“It means ‘m worried ‘bout th’ rest of us ‘ere!” He cried, flinging his arms out, “It means how th’ fuck do you think rugrat lovin’ Cheshire’ll feel ‘bout you lookin’ at Merc as a possible Mum fer ‘er kid? Or how she’ll feel ‘bout a bunch of strangers coddlin’ ‘er baby? Including a couple of bots, ‘cludin’ ‘Risa, who Molly keeps sayin’ is one of ‘er ‘best friends’?”

… Well shite, he didn’t really have a reply for that. And Rat obviously could tell, because the next thing he did was toss the bottle on top of the rest of the shit he nicked and pat his pal on the shoulder.

“I did tell ‘er tha’ you know Cheshire bettah than I do, so you’d know more ‘bout how she’d react to us takin’ care of ‘er kid ‘n all tha’.” He told him.

“So yer makin’ me talk ta ‘er ‘bout Ches.” He said flatly.

“Oi, you wanted ta take care of ‘er kid, you gotta tell th’ doc how long we’ll prob’ly loive.” He told him firmly.

“Ches jumped you _one_ toime, Rat.” Hog grumbled.

“_Once was ‘nough, thanks_!” He snapped, “’N ‘til you got ‘er off, I was close ta losin’ me other leg ‘n I could’ve carked it from the cuts she gave me!” He lifted the leg of his shorts to show the long scar along the back of his left leg and started poking at the light colored, but long scars down his back and shoulders that Cheshire left when she saw Rat hunkered down in his barn, quietly fiddling with his bombs and jumped him just for being there. She _did_ nearly kill him and she _did _leave deep cuts that he was surprised healed as well as they did. He knew a few other blokes who had cuts from her that looked as raw and red as all hell, years after the fact. Well, from the ones who survived the attacks anyways.

“Ya got along foine after.” He said firmly, his stomach twisting.

“After you patched me up or after ya told ‘er I hoired ya?” Rat asked lightly, his face screwed up in irritation.

“… Both…” Hog relented. Ugh, as much as he hated losing arguments with Rat, he knew that his flammable friend was right, “I’ll go talk to her.” He sighed.

Rat smiled broadly at him and gave him a pat on the shoulder, “Good on ya! Now if you excuse me, I’ve got a lady ta talk to meself!” he said cheerfully before splitting away from him, calling out that he, Molly and Bob would come by later before scampering.

Only for him to wonder what did he mean by he, Molly and Bob would come by later?

But, of course, Rat was gone before he could ask.

Roadhog sighed and decided to just get this over with, picking up the shampoo and conditioner he snatched and carefully holding them in his massive hands, his stomach twisting and twirling and starting to hurt as he tried to figure out how to explain the oddity that was Chelsea ‘Cheshire’ Carroll, but ended up unable to really think of anything before he got there.

Well, who knows, maybe he could just go in as if he was there for his lungs again, Mercy _had_ said that figuring out the right treatment would take a while and he did just come back from a mission… in patience and not fucking killing the obnoxious bot who kept fidgeting whenever he was within eye sight.

He shook his head.

‘Forget the bot.’ He told himself, ‘You are home. Your daughter, your dog, and your best friend were all happy to see you when you got off the dropship and now you are going to go in and enjoy a nice chat and a game of chess with an Angel.’

He walked into her office and saw her looking at something through a microscope before looking up at him and giving him a warm smile, “Ah, welcome back!” she said sweetly.

Roadhog felt his cheeks burn before greeting her back and telling her he was back to keep working towards him being able to walk around without his mask. She beamed, “Ah! I was just working on that!” she said cheerfully as she tapped a slender finger against the canister, “Your Hogdrogen is quite the marvel-!” she paused, noticing his fists seemed to be clenched, “What do you have there?” she asked.

He opened his hands, revealing the bottles, “Remembered ya said ya ran out, so...” He said as she walked over and examined the tiny bottles curiously, a smile on her face as she carefully collected them from his hands.

“You’ve saved me!” she exclaimed with a laugh, “I went to the store to pick up shampoo for Molly, Bob and I since we can’t wait until the next shipment comes in just to wash our hair, but I couldn’t find the kind I usually get anywhere! So I bought several small travel ones to hold me over. But I used up my last one last night!” she beamed, “Thanks to you, I can wait until the next shipment comes in with my shampoo!”

“When’s th’ delivery?” He asked.

“It comes on the 12th, so the day after Molly’s birthday.” She informed him.

“Ah, you have any idea what Pipsqueak’s plannin’?” he asked.

“Yes, but I was instructed to tell you nothing.” She replied before she put the bottles on her desk and ushered him further inside, “But I am curious what you have planned for her.”

“Well, most of us went ta th’ beach durin’ th’ summer ‘n she couldn’ go ‘cause she was still under quarantine. Figured I could put a helmet on ‘er ‘n take her ‘n Bob out ta th’ beach ta see th’ sunrise ‘n play a bit, got a bucket ‘n shovel fer ‘er too.”

“Do you have a camera?” she asked him.

“… There’s one on me phone, but ‘m not really good with it. Been meanin’ ta ask Pipsqueak ta help me with tha’.” He admitted. Mercy let out a tsk noise before quickly searching in a desk drawer, “I know I have one somewhere…” She murmured as she shuffled through the items there, “Although, it could be in my desk drawer in my room, but I could have sworn I moved it here to keep photo records of Molly’s wellness…” Her voice trailed off as she pulled the drawer open farther and began digging through it with both hands, a few blonde strands slipping from her ponytail and hanging in her face as she worked.

He had no idea how she could be, scowling and muttering to herself with hair falling into her face and a few food stains on her slightly wrinkled doctor’s coat and clothes, all while digging through a desk drawer like a mad woman and still look amazing, but he wasn’t going to question or complain about it. He found himself smiling a bit as she let out a low swear, closed the drawer and searched through the next one, murmuring what he could assume were more Swiss German curses as she seemed to become more frustrated.

Now that he thought about it, he and Mercy had stayed behind with Molly while the others went to the beach…

“Ya wanna come with us?” He found himself asking. She stopped mid-rifle and looked at him, surprised at the invitation.

Well, that wasn’t supposed to come out of his mouth. Bloody hell, those words weren’t even supposed to escape the confines of his most private romantic novel driven fantasies!

“You, me ‘n Molly were th’ only ones who didn’ go.” He quickly reminded her, “Can’ go in th’ water or nothin’, but I betcha she’d loike it if you came.” Her expression was still somewhat surprised and he felt his stomach start to twist, uncertain if he even wanted an answer anymore. Because, while a yes would be nice, a no was still a pretty big possibility, especially since it would require getting up before sun rise and hopping on the back of his big motorcycle (cause Molly and Bob would be in Rat’s sidecar) and having to hang onto his back to stay on properly.

Shite. Shite! SHITE! He wasn’t sure he could handle that even if she _did _say yes. What the fuck had he been thinking? Oh, right, he _hadn’t_ been thinking. He had been staring. Like a fucking little shitey creep.

He needed to give them both a way out before he started stressing himself out so much he made his lungs worse.

“Ya don’ hafta if ya don’ wanna, I mean, it’ll be really early ‘n I’d understand if ya’d rather get some sleep ta help Pipsqueak with th’ party…” he managed softly as his cheeks burned.

Yeah, Mercy would _totally_ want to get up at the ass crack of dawn, cling to his large, fleshy back all the way to town just to not be able to even swim or do much of anything and then have to climb up onto his motorcycle and cling to his back again to go back.

Drongo. Moron. He was just so stupid.

But instead she simply shook her head and smiled broadly at him, “I would love to, thank you.” She then turned pink and added, “That and I doubt Hana would ever forgive either of us if your pictures of Molly’s first time at the beach were anything other than perfect!”

Roadhog laughed heartily at that, relieved that she had agreed as his pig tattoo bounced against his belt buckle, “I’d havta go on th’ run again!” he joked.

“I doubt you’d get far!” Mercy laughed with him.

They joked around about Hana chasing either of them across the globe for a bit before calming down enough to go over the results of the first scan she’d taken.

There was no sign of cancer, but apparently his extended time in a radiated landscape gave him something called ‘Radiation pneumonitis’, it usually happened to people who underwent radiation therapy for cancer for long periods of time. Basically, it made it harder for him to breathe because the radiation kicked the shit out his healthy lung cells and made it so they couldn’t hold as much air as they used to. They didn’t hold as much as most people’s before this shit, but they had managed to last through everything he’d needed to get done up until the Omnium blew.

Now, good news, people carking it from this condition was very rare.

But the bad news was that, while people dying from that condition was rare, so was someone living in a radiated wasteland for twenty-odd years.

Mercy told him that she believed she could help him recover from it fully, but she explained the possible problems that the condition could give him in the future, even if she managed to cure it, and explained the treatment process and told him that she’d ordered special medicine for him to take in the mean time.

Now, more good news, it turned out that his Hogdrogen had trace amounts of something called a corticosteroid, which is often used in treating the more severe cases of his condition, so she would not have him give it up just yet.

But she warned him that she was still deciphering what was in it, so that could easily change at a moment’s notice and that he’d still have to take the medicine she’d give him.

She pulled out an oxygen tank and an inhaler that looked as if it was made special for those of his size to use and instructed him to remove his mask while handing him the inhaler. She explained that the stuff inside of it would help her measure his lung capacity with some of her more advanced equipment. After they’d do that, she’d let him have a light break strapped to the oxygen tank before she’d see how he breathed with and without his mask.

The inhaler was similar to one he’d used as a kid when he was younger, and the feeling was just as strange to him now as it was then, even more so with someone watching what was happening on his insides. But he obeyed Mercy’s instructions to the letter and was relieved when she let him breathe from the oxygen tank for a bit. He still felt exposed without his mask, but he could actually see how Mercy didn’t seem to fear him or seem repulsed by him. She was acting like she usually did with him, albeit a bit more professional since she was technically treating him now.

He enjoyed watching her look at her screens and scribble something down on her clipboard with a calm expression, making the occasional thoughtful pout as she worked. After who knew how long, he was handed his mask back again and she pulled out the chessboard so they could continue their game where they last left it off.

He started talking to her about he and Rat had nearly been caught by the cops while hiding out in England when a woman started kicking the shit out of some guy on the street, telling him to, “Stay away from my daughter! She’s half your age, you filthy pervert!” And how they nearly had gotten caught (again) by staying behind to watch the woman beat the guy who had been apparently hitting on her underage daughter while she worked at a shoe store nearby.

He had been about to tell her exactly how they stole the crown jewels when he noticed an uncomfortable expression on her face.

Uh oh, this wasn’t going to be good.

“Junkrat said that he was worried about Cheshire coming here to see Molly.” She said softly as she made her move, her tone silently asking if he was overreacting a bit or if there really was a need for concern.

He sighed, “Look, she’s fucked up, but she’s not a bad person. I mean, she’s done bad things, hell, most of us have at some point, but she’s really jus’ a lonely sheila.” He said, feeling a bit uncomfortable trying to explain Cheshire to the woman he had feelings for.

“You were very close to her, weren’t you?” Mercy asked him softly, her expression warm and gentle.

“We joined th’ AFL ‘round th’ same toime.” He said, a bit grateful that she understood where he was coming from a bit, or at least was trying to. It didn’t make it all that much easier to talk about, but these things needed to be said. “She lost ‘er sister th’ same day I lost me Mum ta bots, both of watched ‘um go while bein’ unable ta help them ‘n their birthdays were on th’ same day, so we usually ended up comforting each other on those days.” He felt his throat become thick with emotion as he said that and cleared it a bit before going on.

The last time he’d talked about his mother’s death had been years ago, with Cheshire. It felt refreshing to talk to someone else about it, but after keeping the pain of his mother’s death locked away for so long, he found that it still hurt to talk about it.

“When we joined, most of th’ others with us already were past enough grief tha’ they could work, but didn’ want to talk ‘n sink roight back into a depression or refused ta even think ‘bout them, loike not talkin’ or thinkin’ ‘bout them meant tha’ their loved ones meant they weren’ gone ‘n were nevah comin’ back. So I was really th’ only other person she could talk to ‘bout missin’ ‘er family. Prob’ly didn’ help tha' she ‘n I were odd balls in the group, both younger than most of th’ others, I was bigger than most, she was smaller than nearly all of us.”

“So I assume that Molly will_ not _to grow up as big as you, then?” she asked, her tone a bit teasing and he could tell she was trying to give him something to smile about so he wouldn’t drown in the bitter past.

He had to admit, it felt good to let out a chuckle at that as he assured her that, “Trust me, if Molly grows up ta be anything loike ‘er Mum, she’ll be a force ta be wreckened with no matter how small she’ll be. Apparently Ches was fightin’ ‘fore th’ Crisis, ‘cause her parents ‘n sister were pretty much push overs. I figure tha’, after she lost them, she jus’ didn’ know what ta to with ‘erself. She was lonely ‘n she felt tha’ she failed ‘um. She wanted a family again, she told me tha’ much.”

“A family?” Mercy repeated.

“She didn’ have any friends growin’ up, too busy beatin’ off bullies ta make ‘um ‘n th’ few people who she moight have loiked ta be friends with were all scared of ‘er fer ‘er ‘mean’ reputation. All she had was ‘er family. It was th’ same with me, all I had was me Mum ‘n me dog. Me Mum never told me nothin’ ‘bout me Da’, fer all I know ‘e could be dead. Me dog died when I was a teenager, me mum died durin’ th’ crisis. I had no one left neither. Tha’s why they used ta pair us off when we went ta foight any rogue bots in th’ area.” He explained. He didn’t explain that, by pairing the ones without family together and sending them out to try and stop the more dangerous bots, they were known as ‘Bot bait’, a.k.a, the ones who they could lose without someone getting pissed at them for it. The two of them never liked the name, but they never lost so they felt the joke was on the blokes who assumed they’d cark it just because they had no family or friends.

“You two were often fighting alongside each other?” she posed, curious.

“Yeah. Hardly a time we were apart on th’ battlefield. It was th’ first toime I ever fought with someone I knew had me back. Rat’s th’ second, but honestly, he’s gotten me in more shite than ‘e’s gotten me out of.”

It was Mercy’s turn to chuckle at that, which helped him feel a bit better as he kept talking.

“She started callin’ me ‘Mac’, said it was short fer me real name, Mako, but considerin’ how she used ta tease me, it was probably fer ‘Old Mac Donald’.”

Mercy seemed confused by this, “Why on earth would she call you that?”

“Cause I think farm animals are cute ‘n I owned a solar farm at th’ toime.” He explained flatly, watching as she let out a snort of laughter and covered her face as she let out a stream of giggles. He felt a smile curl up on his face at the sight of her smile peeking through her fingers. He’d forgotten how nice it was to get this stuff off of his chest. To have someone who wanted to know about him, both as Roadhog and Mako.

He waited until she calmed down a bit before she asked, “Did you have a nickname for her?”

“Yeah; Cheshire.” He said, “Had no idea how fittin’ it was at th’ toime. She was givin’ me shite while I was tryin’ ta read. She was wearin’ a striped shirt ‘n givin’ me tha’ grin of ‘er’s while talkin’ in riddles ta piss me off ‘n it jus’ came out.” He smiled a bit at the memory of the woman’s shocked face before admitting that, “It earned me ‘bout two minutes of peace ‘fore she started jabbin’ at me arm with ‘er fingers, tellin’ me tha’ she loved it. She told me later ‘bout ‘er parent’s fang carpentry bein’ called ‘Cheshire Smiles’.”

“When did she tell you about her sister?” she asked.

“Not too long after we joined. Couple of members were stayin’ at me place ‘n it was koinda weird at th’ toime. I mean, I’d been livin’ on me own fer a bit, but me Mum was often over with survivors of th’ crisis who needed a place fer th’ noight. It… it was noice. Havin’ people in me house again… it was loike me Mum was back with whatever wounded soul she found ‘n was walkin’ them ‘round. I was pretty emotional ‘n went into me barn ta see if I could work through it or somethin’. Didn’ want them ta think I couldn’ handle meself on th’ battlefield or nothin’ by suddenly burstin’ inta tears. When I opened it, I found Ches sittin’ in a corner, sobbin’ ‘n holdin’ me mask… well, it was ‘er’s then, it was somethin’ ‘er sister made ta help people loike me. She gave it to me after th’ omnium blew ta help me... “ he shook his head, ‘stay focused’ he told himself as he opened his mouth once more.

“Anyways, she was jus’ sittin’ there, cryin’. Surprised me ta foind ‘er there, struth. She seemed loike a little sheila burnin’ with vengence when she foirst joined, never let any of us assume she was there fer nothin’ other than a desoire ta destroy any ‘n all bots she saw. But in tha’ moment? She was a lonely little sheila grievin’ ‘er sister ‘n ‘er parents in a corner of me barn, blubberin’ how she was sorry she failed ‘um. It was th’ foirst toime I saw ‘er as someone who was lonely ‘n grievin’, jus’ loike me.”

He finally moved a piece and looked at Mercy, “Check.”

She jumped at the move, seemingly so engrossed in his tale to pay attention to the pieces on the board before picking up the board and putting it back on her desk and sitting back in her spot, staring at him. As if silently saying, ‘we’ll play later, talk now.’

He felt his cheeks warm a bit at the fact that she didn’t break eye contact, wanting him to go on and tell her more about his life before it completely went to shite.

He sucked in a breath and continued, “Scared th’ shite out of ‘er when she finally noticed I saw ‘er ‘fore she tried fibbin’ ta cover up ‘er cryin’. She was prob’ly thinkin’ I’d tell ‘er ta get lost if she couldn’ handle ‘er grief or somethin’. Instead I jus’ koinda sat next ta ‘er ‘n asked ‘er ‘bout th’ mask. Didn’ take ‘er long ta tell me ‘bout ‘er sister. How toiny she’d been when she was born. How she loiked smashin’ bananas on ‘er toast in th’ mornin’s. How she loved it when Ches brushed ‘n braided ‘er hair. How she used ta carefully patch Ches up after runnin’ inta a rogue bot...” he felt his throat go thick again, remembering how she had sobbed as she revealed to him the next bit he needed to say, “’N how she kept sayin’ sorry so much tha’ she didn’ get a chance ta say good bye.”

He heard a sniffle and saw that Mercy’s eyes were watering.

“I did that too.” She said, trying to wipe the tears away before they fell, “My Papa and I were looking for my Mama after the news broke that the omnics in Switzerland had started going rogue, she had only gone to a shop a block up the road to get a few things for dinner, we thought we could manage to get her back to the house safely without getting caught.” Her voice wavered a bit as she told him that, “I-I hadn’t been paying attention, I was too busy glancing around for her when I got noticed by one. I still remember it’s face. It used to direct traffic and wave at me when I crossed the street to go to school… I-I used to call it Hans. I-I thought it was my friend. And, who knows, maybe it was, before the crisis. But I’ll never forget how hurt I was when a gun came out of it from nowhere and Hans fired at me. My Papa saw it in time and managed to shot Hans before he hurt me, but he didn’t get out unscathed. I watched my Papa die in front of me, and as hard as I tried to save him, I couldn’t…” She began to shake a bit at the memory, “T-the bandages just didn’t stay on…”

“Th’ blood wouldn’ stop comin’ out, no matter how hard you tried ta put pressure on it.” He continued for her as he gently patted her arm, “Their breathin’ kept gettin’ weaker, their eyes kept droopin’, ‘n no matter how much ya pleaded fer them ta stay with ya, they’d take one last breath ‘n then they were jus’ gone.”

She nodded, wiping at her face more as a few tears started to fall. He pulled out his handkerchief from his pocket and held it out to her.

“Danke.” She sniffled as she took it and wiped at her face. He used this time to pull himself together for a moment, his mother’s face smiling at him softly in his memory, her face so serene despite the blood everywhere and the pain she was probably in, as she told him she loved him and that he was the greatest thing the world ever gave her before he watched her slowly die as he cried out that he was sorry and to hang on a little longer, please, just a little longer, that they were so close to a hospital and to please, just, _please_ not leave him.

He felt a few hot tears fall down his face as Mercy apologized for interrupting, “No, it’s foine, if anything, it jus’ reminds me how good it is ta let this off yer chest.” He managed through his own tears as he struggled to keep the emotion from thickening further in his throat. His lungs were shite at the moment, he didn’t need his throat clogging up on him now too.

She gave him a small smile and nodded, “It does feel a little like a weight has been lifted off your heart, doesn’t it?”

He smiled back and nodded.

“Was it like that back then too?” She asked.

“Yeah, felt really good back then when th’ wounds were fresher ‘n we both were tryin’ ta figure out how ta deal with it. Don’ mean it don’ feel good now, it’s jus’…”

“You needed more it back then.” Mercy finished for him, understanding.

“Yeah.” He said, grateful that she really did understand, “Needed ta know tha’ someone fightin’ with us weren’ as unfeelin’ as th’ bots we were foightin’. Tha’ someone there understood ‘n would be there when we had somethin’ ta get off our chests. Think Ches needed it more than I did, though. Don’ think she experienced someone she loved dyin’ ‘fore th’ Crisis.”

“And you did?” she asked.

“Loiked I said, had a dog growing up. Sweetest little cocker spaniel you’d ever seen. She was my only friend as a kid, loved curlin’ up beside me ‘n layin’ in th’ sun.” He smiled at the memories of his sweet little puppy that flashed through his head before he told her that, “Crushed me when she died, but at least I learned how ta grieve a bit from that ‘n I still had me Mum by me side. Ches didn’ know what ta do with ‘er feelin’s, she kept swappin’ from upset ta lonely ta angry ta vengeful ta remorseful… She jus’ was a mess all th’ toime. She didn’ know how ta handle it ‘n I didn’ moind helpin’ ‘er then, I mean, we both needed a friend ta help us grieve ‘n I was foine with tha’. We talked ‘bout our families, our loikes, disloikes, everything. We jus’ bonded. Spent a lot of toime with ‘er while we was in th’ AFL. Sheila was practically attached ta me by th’ hip.”

“So before you had a Rat, you had a Cat?” she joked softly.

“Nah, unloike Rat, Ches listened when I told ‘er ta knock somethin’ off th’ foirst toime.” he said flatly, making her laugh again, his hanky still clutched in her hand, “Don’ mean she didn’ get me into trouble a lot loike Rat does. Hell, my first toime really pissin’ Queenie off was from helpin’ ‘er get away with attackin’ ‘er ‘n havin’ ‘er hoide out in my place ‘n sendin’ th’ blokes she sent after ‘er packin’. But at least when I told ‘er ta stop, she stopped after th’ foirst toime I told ‘er.”

“You were her closest friend, of course she would listen to you.” Mercy pointed out. Hog felt his cheeks burn and she must have noticed because she then asked, “She _did_ see you as just a friend, didn’t she?”

“Fer a while, yeah.” He said with a sigh, “Least as far as I knew. Dunno when tha’ changed, but I finally figured it out a little ‘fore th’ Omnium blew. One of th’ blokes came in with a box of th’ good stuff ta celebrate finally gettin’ th’ bots tha’ ruined so many loives off our land. Most of us were havin’ a good toime, glad tha’ th’ foight would be over, tha’ they could go back ta loivin’ their loives.”

He swallowed hard as the memory flashed through his head, “But I didn’, ‘cause I knew tha’ soon as it was over, I’d be alone. Again.” He felt his voice waver a bit at the last word, but he wasn’t going to stop here. If he didn’t get it out now, he doubted he could ever be able to utter what happened that night ever again, “Ches sat next ta me ‘n we started talkin’, loike we always did. She was scared, she didn’ want our mission ta end. S-she said tha’ even if it ended ‘n we won, we’d still prob’ly lose a few to ‘um, so in th’ end, all we’d have was more loss ‘n loneliness than we started with. ‘N she was roight.”

He started fiddling with his chain, his face burning, “We kept drinkin’ ‘n drinkin’ ‘n bein’ all depressed ‘bout bein’ alone after we got our homes back… She said something ‘bout knowin’ how we wouldn’t be lonely no more, then she started kissin’ me ‘n then...”

He tried to keep going, but he couldn’t. He didn’t want Mercy to hear this. He didn’t want to talk about this. This was so private and personal and no matter how much he should tell her about this, he didn’t want to. He didn’t want to tell the woman he liked about his first time. Especially since his first time was a gigantic mistake that made him end up hurting someone he saw as a friend for a long time.

“You woke up and realized she wanted more than friendship?” Mercy offered, looking a bit uncomfortable herself at the topic.

He nodded, feeling like shit, both for stupidly going along with Cheshire back then even though he didn’t really see her as anything but a friend and that he stupidly thought they were both doing it out of a need for comfort when, if he had been using his head, he’d realize that it wasn’t the reason Cheshire had done it.

And he felt disgusting telling Mercy about this.

She probably thought he was a creep now. She probably wouldn’t want to play chess with him anymore or help him with his lungs anymore or even look at him ever again.

And he wouldn’t blame her.

“Yeah,” he finally managed, looking at his fingers as they frantically fiddled with his chain, as if it could make the topic less awkward if he tried hard enough, “Realized tha’ she saw me as more than a friend who understood bein’ lonely.” He felt himself curl up in shame as he admitted that, “’N I realized tha’ I couldn’ be what she wanted me ta be, wasn’ ready fer tha’. I jus’ got th’ fuckin’ department of orphan’s court declarin’ tha’ I settled me Mum’s estate th’ day ‘fore th’ party! I wasn’t ready fer tha’ sort of thing. I-I… I jus’ needed a friend… I jus’ didn’ want ta be alone...”

He felt tears falling down his face and felt as if he was running out of air, his lungs were screaming for him to stop, but he just kept talking, “But I knew tha’ she didn’ want ta jus’ be a friend anymore ‘n it weren’ fair ta ask ‘er ta try! Tha’ I’d fucked up big toime ‘n I couldn’ jus’ act loike nothin’ happened! Tha’ I lost th’ closest thing I had ta a friend then ‘cause I was stupid, drunk ‘n lonely ‘n…” Mercy’s hand gently grasped his twitching fingers, he stopped, shocked that she’d even touch him after what he just told her. He looked at her and saw concern written all over her face as she quickly grabbed at one of his hands with both of her own.

“Mako.” She said softly, “I need you to take a deep breath for me, alright?”

He stiffened at the sound of his real name and obeyed, his lungs feeling a bit of relief as he did so.

“Good.” She murmured, her tone calming and gentle as she instructed for him to do it again, and again, and again until he felt a bit better.

“S-sorry.” He sputtered, feeling like a big, fat, blubbering baby in front of her.

Yeah, because he hadn’t given her _enough_ reasons to think badly of him.

“There is no need to be sorry.” She assured him as she gave his hand a small squeeze, “I am glad you are sharing something so private with me. It is probably not easy talking about this.”

He felt grateful and relieved and just glad she didn’t completely hate him as he nodded in confirmation, “Never talked ta anyone ‘bout it ‘fore. Jus’ got up, got dressed ‘n got ta work. Few of th’ others spotted us kissin’ ‘n said somethin’, but it didn’ take much ta shut ‘um up. One of them said tha’ if Ches was givin’ it out ta me of all blokes than maybe he had a shot ‘n I made sure ‘e never said it again. S-she didn’ deserve tha’.” He said firmly, pleased that Mercy nodded fiercely in agreement with him and that she still held his hand. It was comforting.

“After th’ Omnium blew Ches basically took care of me ‘cause I couldn’ breathe. It was when she gave me th’ mask tha’ I remembered jus’ how much I fucked up ‘n I-I jus’ couldn’ talk ‘bout it... Everything was too much, too raw. We’d jus’ fucked up th’ home we were tryin’ ta save. None of us talked fer days. ‘N when we could finally go out, we had ta bury th’ ones who died. They gave their loives fer us ta have tha’ chance, th’ least we could do was goive ‘um a proper burial for their sacrifices.”

He leaned his head back and sucked in some more air, Mercy letting go of his hand for a moment before coming back with the oxygen tank and the mask, but he waved it away.

It was hard enough talking about this, he would feel even more exposed and raw if he had to do so without the safety Cheshire’s mask gave him. She nodded, but told him that if he needed air again, he would wear it whether he liked it or not. He agreed and she motioned for him to keep talking.

“When Junkertown was formed, she started makin’ passes at me again ‘n starin’ at kids fer too long. I got a bad feelin’ ‘bout all of it.” He grasped at his chain again, staring at the links as he told her that, “She was lonely ‘n she wanted a family again. I could see how she wanted ta do tha’ at tha’ point. But I also knew tha’ those two things ain’ something ya can build a romantic relationship on. Tha’s what you build a trainwreck on.”

Mercy nodded in agreement before asking, “So, you two never really talked about it or talked about how you felt about it?”

“Nah, never. Thought she moight wanna talk ‘bout it when she started acting up a few years back, getting more aggressive, gettin’ in more foights ‘n comin’ ta me upset ‘n injured.” He paused, “Lookin’ back, she was probably dealin’ with bein’ robbed of possible kids, but I didn’ know tha’ then. I jus’ kept havin’ ‘er stay with me ‘n hopin’ she’d tell me what was goin’ on ‘n we could talk. I mean th’ friendship moight of gotten fucked up back then, but it didn’ mean tha’ I stopped carin’.”

He looked down at his gut, remembering her curled up, sobbing figure on his couch, “She kept wrappin’ ‘er arms ‘round her stomach whenever she’d calm down ‘n jus’ cry fer a while, I figured she either wanted a kid ‘n was scared tha’ ‘er clock was tickin’ down or tha’ she was scared tha’ she couldn’ have one.”

“And now you know what happened.” Mercy whispered.

“’N now I know.” He nodded, feeling awful but knowing there was no way he could’ve known what happened back then without her telling him.

“So, what are you going to do if she shows up?” she asked.

“I told Molly I’d introduce ‘er when it’s safe. If ‘er Mum’s by ‘erself, I’ll see if I can keep my word.” He told her simply. It wasn’t the best plan, but it was the only one he had at the moment and honestly, after unintentionally hurting her for all these years, introducing her to her own daughter was the least he could do.

“And if she attacks you?” She posed.

“I hope tha’ you can reattach me family jewels.” He joked. Mercy scowled at him, silently telling him that it wasn’t funny, before he explained that, “She ‘n I used ta spar all th’ toime, we’d smack each other ‘round, but we never really hurt each other too bad. It’ll prob’ly jus’ end up loike tha’. ‘Sides, I doubt she’d foight me if it’d make Molly upset.”

“Junkrat didn’t seem so sure.” She told him, sounding a bit worried.

“Yeah, well, prob’ly didn’ help tha’ she nearly took another limb from ‘im when she first saw him sittin’ in me barn playin’ with one of ‘is bombs. Had ta tell ‘er he hoired me fer a job so she’d leave ‘im alone.” He let out a low chuckle, “Honestly, if I’d introduced them foirst thing, they’d probably be good mates.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, she loved action movies because of all th’ destruction ‘n explosions.” He informed her, making her chuckle.

“Well, in that case, they’d be great friends!” she laughed before the two sunk into a sea of refreshing laughter before they calmed down, with him feeling refreshed and light after talking about something he’d been holding in for over twenty years now.

“Thanks fer lettin’ me talk ‘bout all this.” He said softly, “Felt this bloody weight on my back fer over twenty years, feels nice for it ta finally lighten up a bit.”

She gently squeezed his hand again, “Any time.” She assured him, “I am sorry I used your name without permission, though.”

He stared at her for a moment, then held out his hand, “Mako Rutledge.”

She looked at it, surprised before taking it with a smile, “Dr. Angela Ziegler.”

“Doctor?” he repeated with a chuckle.

“When you spend all that time in medical school to earn that title, you use it as much as you can.” She replied coolly. He chuckled, “Wouldn’t know. After I finished secondary school I started workin’ ta earn enough money ta buy meself a farm.” He said.

“Why did you want a farm?” Merc-Angela asked.

He felt his cheeks burn, “Promise not ta tell anyone?” He asked her. She nodded eagerly, looking excited.

“Th’ dog I had? She loved this farm me Mum ‘n I would go to a fer fresh plums in th’ summer ‘n fall. Me Mum was friends with th’ owner ‘n everyone there always treated me loike I was one of them, loike I belonged. Told me tha’ I was welcome ta work there when I got older. I did, fer a little bit. Me pup even came with me ‘fore she died. It was a noice feelin’, workin’ there with me dog at me heels. I felt loike tha’ was where I belonged.”

“That does sound nice.” She agreed before tilting her head, “You know, you’ve been talking about your dog, but you haven’t said her name. What was her name?”

“Named ‘er Hailey, after an actress me ‘n me Mum loiked...” He began.

“Oh! Was it Hailey Snow?” she blurted, then turned pink, probably a bit embarrassed by her outburst and looking a bit guilty for interrupting him, not that he gave a shit at the moment.

“Yeah. Me Mum ‘n I were huge fans, we used ta have marathons of her movies on th’ foirst days of break.” He said, pleasantly surprised she had known his beloved dog’s namesake. Especially since she was an actress from the 2020s, so most people wouldn’t really know her too well these days.

“Oh! My Mama and Papa went to one of her films for their first date when they were teenagers! We used to watch them all the time!” she said, looking just as happy as he was that she was right and that he had been a fan too, “We had our marathons on the last days of breaks, though, to give us one last fun thing before I had to go back to school.”

“Huh, we saved those days for our feast of favorites.” He recalled.

“Feast of favorites?” She repeated, smiling in anticipation of what he would say next.

“Yeah, me ‘n me Mum would spend all day makin’ all of our favorite foods ‘n make a feast out of it. Tha’ way we could celebrate th’ last day of break, but also get ta have th’ leftovers fer th’ rest of th’ week.” He explained.

“That sounds like something we should try sometime, I think it would be a great way for all of us to bond as a team!” Mercy said excitedly before pouting, “Oh, but Zenyatta, Bastion and Orisa don’t eat. It would be a bit awkward trying to include them in that...”

“Why don’ we jus’ have a movie noight sometoime?” Hog suggested, “Th’ bots can join us fer tha’, roight?”

“What can th’ bots join us fer?” A child’s voice asked from the doorway, making them both jump as they realized that they had two smiling human face, one smiling Orisa face and one droopy dog face wearing an expression saying, ‘I tried to stop them, but you can guess how well that went...’

“Sorry fer jus’ droppin’ in, but Molls wanted ta make sure ‘e came today.” Rat said, his grin wide and knowing. Molly nodded eagerly as she walked inside with Orisa finally managing to poke her head through, looking curious.

“Did ya foind out what’s wrong with his lungs?” She asked, the violet orbs wide and sparkling with hope that her Daddy would be able to walk around the base without his mask and still be able to breathe.

“Kind of. He’ll get a_ little_ bit better soon, but it will take a while to make sure that he gets and stays better.

“So he’ll be a little bettah, but it’ll be a while ‘fore he’s all bettah.” Molly clarified.

“Exactly!” She said, pleased that the child understood before ruffling her hair, “By the time we’ve finished his treatment, he will be able to play with you all you want without his mask!”

Molly’s eyes widened even more at this promise of all the maskless play time she wanted, her eyes sparkling to the point where Hog nearly asked if someone accidently dumped glitter on them. Her cowlicks were curled so tight on her head that it seemed as though it might actually hurt. Her smile was wide with excitement and glee and she started boucing on her toes and making a happy sound that Hog wasn’t sure he’d ever heard before… Had she always made that sound and he just didn’t notice or did the thought of that just make her a whole new level of happy? Because either way it still made him melt inside hearing it.

“In the mean time…” Mercy-ANGELA said, “How does a nice movie night with everyone sound?”

“What’s a movie noight?” she asked.

“Oh, Efi told me about movie nights!” Orisa said excitedly, beginning to bounce on her own set of… he didn’t know if she technically _had_ toes, but he knew that she was definitely bouncing on all four feet as she explained that, “You acquire snacks and your favorite movies and snuggle up in blankets and watch them with your friends!” She said cheerfully before looking to the eldest two in the room, “Can we please have one tonight? Please!?” She asked.

“Yeah, please?” Molly joined in, the two starting to stretch out their pleads to sync up in harmony.

“Sure.” Hog said, wanting the sound to stop, “You all go ask around if everyone’s up for it or not.”

“Affirmative!” Orisa cried, “You can count on us!” Molly smiled and saluted with her before the two and Bob ran out, Orisa calling out, “Athena, requesting locations of all members!” as the sounds of their feet hitting the ground faded.

But Rat stayed where he was.

So much for ‘all’ of them going to ask around.

“I’d go with ‘um, but I need some new clean bandages fer me arm ‘n leg ‘n I can’ ‘member if I came in fer me follow up appointment yet today.” He said with a shrug, as if silently explaining to his pal WHY he stuck around.

Angela shook her head, “No, but you’re here now, so why don’t you take a seat and I’ll start setting up.” She said as she motioned for him to take a seat on one of the beds while she grabbed some fresh bandages from a cabinet and started up her equipment.

“You came ‘ere willingly?” Hog mused quietly, suspicious.

“Molly’s been makin’ me come while ya’ve been gone.” He admitted bashfully, “But today I came ‘cause I had a feelin’ ya moight need a distraction if it started goin’ bad.”

“Little late fer th’ bad part.” he said flatly, a little annoyed they had been interrupted.

“Sorry, would’ve been ‘ere soona, but Bob koinda made a mess outside ‘n we needed ta clean it up, then ‘im up ‘fore he could come back in. Then we had ta clean ourselves up a bit.” Rat explained with a giggle.

“Ah.” He replied, pleased they had done that so his little sharefest would not have been interrupted by the smell of fresh dog doo. “Good on ya.”

“Cheers!” he laughed before Angela came back and handed him the fresh bandages and began giving him his check up. Roadhog plopped himself on a nearby bed and watched as she carefully inspected his side and pressed her fingers gingerly near the area and chatted with Junkrat. Once satisfied, she tapped a few things onto a tablet and made her way to her desk to upload the data to her main computer.

Junkrat looked at him, “So, what movie are we watchin’ tonoight?” he asked him.

“Hmm, figured a Hailey Snow movie would be good.” Hog replied, catching a smile on Angela’s face out of the foggy corners of the goggles of his mask.

“Who?” Rat asked.

“You never saw a Hailey Snow movie?!” Angela blurted as she walked back to them, shocked.

“We didn’ exactly have lotsa movies ta watch out in Junkertown.” Rat reminded her.

“We ain’ in Junkertown now, though.” Hog pointed out, “Maybe we should start gettin’ back up ta speed on tha’ front.”

“Sounds good ta me. I’ll see if I can spread th’ news too, divide ‘n concure ‘n all tha’.”

“Conquer.” Hog and Angela corrected in unison, blushing when they realized they did that.

“Whatevah.” Rat dismissed with a snicker and a wave of his hand before leaving, Hog having a feeling that Rat would tease him for that later, but he decided to deal with it when it happened and just to enjoy it as she put the chess board on a small side table by his bed.

“Now,” she said as she pulled her chair up to the other side of the table, “let’s see if I can turn this check around.”

“Good luck with tha’.” He replied with a chuckle, grateful that the conversation hadn’t made her hate him and that he’d gotten it off of his chest.

He felt even better when Angela groaned in defeat before Athena told them that the whole base was up for a movie night and that it would be starting soon.

But he had to be happiest when she gently touched his arm as he got up to leave, “So, should I meet you both in the garage at about eight?” she asked.

“’Thena told me th’ sun rises at ‘bout 8:30 in th’ mornin’ tha’ day, so more loike seven thirty or so.”

“But you said…” she began, confused.

“Yeah,_ you_ can meet us there at seven thirty,” he said, pointing at her before jabbing himself in the chest with his thumb, “but I’ll need ta be up at six ta drag Molly ‘n Bob out of bed ta be in th’ garage by then.”

“Oh, then maybe we could ask if Jesse wouldn’t mind making Molly some special pancakes?” Mercy suggested, “I’m sure if it’s only at seven in the morning, he won’t mind and it would certainly help modivate her to get up and keep you both from being too tired to watch the sun rise properly.”

“Pancakes sound ace.” He replied warmly as he gave her a gentle pat on the shoulder, his face burning just from just doing that (oh for the love of all that was Holy, he needed to stop being a fucking teenager about this…), “’N thanks again fer listenin’ ta me blubber on... It really does feel good ta get all of this off me chest.”

She gave him a warm smile back and patted his hand, “Any time, Mako.” She told him, “Any time.”

He motioned for her to exit her office first, which she thanked him for, not knowing he’d done so not only because of the manners his mother nailed into him, but because it meant he could happily space out a little at the way she said his real name without her noticing.

Smiling even more as he joined everyone else in the common room and chuckled warmly as his little girl and dog happily hopped into his lap, eager for the film to start as she offered him some popcorn as she bounced on her bum, getting a good amount on the floor for Bob to enjoy.

But as an old favorite played on the massive screen, he felt his stomach start to twist as he wondered just_ how_ Cheshire would fit into the odd Overwatch family Molly had gained since coming here. And how upset would she be if and when she found out about his feelings for Angela?

He sucked in a calming breath, one thing at a time. If Cheshire did come here and she did come alone, he’d keep his promise to Molly first. After that, well, he-he’d figure it out.

He’d have to.

He may have fucked up the friendship he’d had with Cheshire all those years ago, but maybe, just _maybe_, he could find a place for her in this weird family to make up for his mistakes and give her a chance to find a people who she loved not just because she was lonely, but because they made her happy, treated her right and loved her too. He could manage that, right?

Right?


	36. Mama Mercy?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After learning more about Molly's mother, Mercy is feeling a bit uneasy about her place in the little girl's life and how it might change the night before Molly's birthday.   
Also there's homemade pancakes and fun on the beach.

After realizing she liked Roadho- _Mako_ as more than just a friend last week and having him be gone on that mission, she’d managed to distract herself from her feelings.

She tidied up her entire office space, she focused on Junkrat’s follow up appointments, she did inventory of all her medical supplies and bought little things that they needed at the store… But, despite her best efforts, ultimately she’d find herself thinking about him due to testing samples of his Hogdrogen, looking at the plans Junkrat had of his machine, Molly telling her all about the calls they’d had right after having them, even though she’d be talking to him while following Junkrat in for his appointments everyday… Or just, you know, finding herself staring at her chess set for the upteenth time.

She was a bit out of it, but at least when he was on that mission she could focus on other things, but after the discussion she’d had with him the day before, she found herself looking at the wanted poster of Chelsea ‘Cheshire’ Carroll on the internet along with a list of her crimes.

The amount of violence listed in her record was astounding, and these were only the crimes she did _outside_ of Junkertown. She had paused at a crime listed nine years ago, the only time she ever had her bail paid instead of just bailing out of prison, and felt tears run down her cheeks as she remembered his pained words, “…She was lonely… She wanted a family again…”

What had been said to her all those years ago for her to trust them so easily? What kind of promises were made that they never planned to keep? How must it have felt to wake up in the middle of the radiated outback with pain in your abdomen and a bad feeling that you were just robbed of something so precious only to realize just how much you lost in that hopeful moment and how much you would come to lose later for it?

Angela felt her heart breaking for her as she looked at the most recent picture they had of her, from three years ago.

She looked so much like an older version of Molly that it physically hurt, only with a pointer chin, wilder hair with no cowlicks, tanned skin and freckles all over, and so much anger and pain bright in her violet eyes.

This woman was robbed of her family, turned down by the closest thing she had to a friend, watched her home become a radiated wasteland, and was tricked, cut open, robbed of possible children, and left out in open with a fresh wound that probably led her to become infertile.

Angela just wanted to hug her and promise that everything was going to be okay. But would she really want a hug from someone who was interested in the same man she’d been persuing and who’d spent more time bonding with her daughter than she had?

…Yeah, probably not.

Her emotions were jumbled up and she couldn’t make heads or tails of them…

She was upset and hurt at the news that someone she had only just recently discovered that she’d liked as a possible romantic partner had been with this woman, but all of the things that she had learned had happened to her just made her feel awful for being angry or mad at her. And Mako was so torn up about the whole thing, so upset about it that he could hardly breathe. So while hearing about their… _evening together_ hurt, she couldn’t be mad at them without feeling awful.

And besides, it wasn’t as if she hadn’t had a fling or two over the years, so who was she to judge them about that?

But it wasn’t just about him and her, it was about Molly too. She had been enjoying her time with Molly so much, she_ liked_ being a mother figure. She _liked_ how Molly would look up to her and how she was always so eager to talk to her and find and keep her attention… but was it fair to continue to do that when all her biological mother had wanted was family and a child?

It wasn’t like Cheshire could have another one, but at the same time, she liked her position in Molly’s life. She liked being the mom, she wanted to keep doing it. What if Cheshire didn’t know how to be a mother? But then again, what if she didn’t really know either? What did either of them know about parenting? What did _anyone_ really know about parenting? Weren’t all parents basically winging it and hoping they got it right?

How was she supposed to feel right now?

She collapsed on top of her covers, frustrated. Dealing with her feelings about Moira liking Mako for showing her no mercy was a cake walk compared to this. At least then she knew what she felt and knew that she was right feeling that way. There was no confusion or guilt, just anger. She didn’t understand all of the reasons why it made her so angry at the time, but she had enough to work with to decide that being super pissed off was a reasonable reaction. It had been simple.

This whole thing with Mako and Cheshire and Molly was not anywhere close to that.

She heard a knock on her door, “Angela? It’s Fareeha, may I come in?”

Angela got up from her bed where she had been sorting through so many emotions and opened the door to see Fareeha holding mugs of hot cocoa, “And, before you ask, no, it’s not Swiss Miss, it’s made from actual Swiss chocolates.” She assured her.

“Where did you get swiss chocolates?” She asked as she took the mug, the comforting scent and warmth already starting to work their magic.

“Roadhog.” She said plainly, “I told him I was worried about you and was going to make some hot cocoa when he ran out and came back with swiss chocolate. No idea where he got it, but he said I could have it if I thought it would help.”

Angela’s heart throbbed painfully at the mention of the moniker, that was such a sweet gesture and one she felt was something he would definitely do for someone he cared about.

“Are you okay?” Fareeha asked, concerned. She motioned for her friend to come in and close the door.

“M-_Roadhog_ told me about his time with Molly’s mother yesterday. I-I looked her up today to see if I could learn more and…” She shook her head, hoping Fareeha wouldn’t catch her little slip up, “I guess the whole thing just hit me harder than I thought.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” Fareeha asked.

She quickly thought about how to answer this question, because while she was _not_ okay, she was uncertain if Fareeha was the best person to talk about all of this with.

Ana was someone she could talk to about anything, including romantic problems, but Fareeha had not inherited this skill from her mother at all. She remembered the last time she tried to have some girl talk with her about a crush of hers and Fareeha made it clear just how little she thought of her friend’s choice.

It had hurt.

It had hurt badly.

She had left the room in tears and it took weeks for them to make up and she was honestly still a little mad at her reaction to her confession about the crush she’d had at the time. It was almost like she had been insulted by her choice...

But anyways Angela needed clarity right now, not an excuse to cry like a child and to avoid someone else on the base and she doubted Fareeha would be any kinder this time if she revealed her feelings for Mako to her.

But, maybe Fareeha could help her sort out her feelings about Molly and Cheshire instead, after all, she had her father, Sam, and a father figure, Reinhardt, growing up. (Brigitte’d had Reinhardt as a secondary father figure as well, now that she thought about it)

“I… I don’t think I should. He told me very personal things in confidence and I’m honestly still trying to figure out how I feel about all of it.” She said carefully.

“How you feel about it?” Fareeha asked.

Oh boy, she had been hoping she wouldn’t ask.

“I don’t know.” She said softly, “There is just so much to process…”

“I don’t know why you’re stressing out about something that we don’t know will even happen.” Fareeha said firmly, “So they sent a note saying they’d get Molly’s biological mom, but so what? How do we know they’ll even manage to find her, let alone either capture her or convince her to join them? For all we know, she saw Moira back then and could attack her…” Fareeha paused, “Junkrat said she was a tough fighter, but how tough was she?”

“She’s wanted for multiple counts of murder, manslaughter, maiming and other violent acts.” Angela recited, “And Roadhog said she had cut up plenty of people in Junkertown just for looking at her funny.”

“Exactly!” Fareeha exclaimed, “If she saw Moira, who for all we know, could have been the person who cut her open and stole who knows how many possible babies from her, what do you think she would do?”

“Kill her, probably…” she stopped mid sentence. Fareeha was right, the chances that Cheshire would believe or join Talon were very low, and that was if they could even find her. For goodness sakes, the Australian government were having a hard time with that and they knew the area better than Talon did! And there was a big chance she would attack and harm them before they could do anything!

And while it seemed foolish to believe she could take them on her own, she used to spar with Roadhog, a massive man who took on two Talon agents at once, beat them and only came out with a single bullet wound to the shoulder that he only took because he literally couldn’t avoid it without stepping on them or his wounded pal on the ground. Not to mention the fact that, according to him, they only really managed to quote ‘smack each other around’, so she was probably skilled enough to fight them off easily enough. Especially since she doubted Moira’s wounds would have completely healed yet, even with her skills, Moira’s expertise was genetics, not medicine, it would take time for the extensive injuries she’d had to heal.

But… even if the thought of that made her feel more secure in her spot in both Mako and Molly’s lives…

She remembered how, despite Ana being like a mother to her when she came here, she still found herself wondering how it would be like if her mother had been where Ana had stepped in. It had been painful because, she knew that her mother would never be there… But Molly’s could.

How much worse would it feel to know her mother could be there but wasn’t?

“Molly still deserves to meet her biological mother.” She insisted with a shake of her head. “Her mother has wanted family, and a child ever since she lost her only family twenty years ago, it’s unfair to both of them if they never meet.” Angela said softly.

“Who said that Molly won’t meet her some day?” Fareeha comforted, gently rubbing her back, “Once the PETRAs act is gone, we can send people into Australia to get her, hell, we could have the Junkers bring Molly’s mom here, meet her properly! Who knows, maybe she might join, bet that would be nice for her, having both parents here.”

Angela winced, the image of the three Junkers as a family unit flashing through her head and making her chest ache.

Fareeha noticed the wince and seemed uncertain how to respond next, looking around the room in hopes of finding something to help her. She spotted the book Mako had lent her, got up from the bed and picked it up. Her eyes widening in realization, before turning to her, “Oh, I get it now. You like being Molly’s mother too. That’s why you’re conflicted. You want to be the mom, but you don’t want to take the role from Cheshire either.”

“That might be part of it.” she admitted as she rubbed her thumbs against the sides of the mug and breathed in the comforting scent before taking another sip.

“It’s not like Molly can’t have two moms!” Fareeha assured her.

‘Yes, but Mako can’t have two wives.’ She thought as she looked at the cocoa in her mug, ‘Especially since he…’ she paused.

He didn’t and doesn’t feel the same way about her that she feels about him. He said as much yesterday. That’s why he felt so guilty, ashamed and just completely awful about… _that. _

_He didn’t feel the same_. Cheshire knew that and she knew that. She still had a chance and she could still maybe befriend the wild woman Mako had spent so many years with.

She felt a weight lifting off of her chest and a relieved smile curl up her cheeks.

Molly _could_ have two moms in their weird Overwatch family. As to how else Cheshire could fit in, she didn’t know yet, but maybe if she compiled enough data to give Cheshire to show how Molly had grown with them, it’d help all of them grow closer.

“You are right.” She said, giving her a teasing smile, “I suppose if you can have two fathers growing up, Molly can have two mothers.”

Fareeha choked on the sip of cocoa she had just taken and started coughing and sputtering while Angela quickly grabbed a few tissues and handed them to her, gently patting her back in a comforting gesture.

“Thanks.” She finally managed before saying that, “And that is totally different!”

“One father here, one in Canada. One mother here, one in Australia.” She said, her cocoa held between her kness as she held up her hands as if they were scales before picking her mug back up again and taking a sip of her cocoa.

“It’s quite similar.” She told her after she swallowed her sip.

Fareeha blushed, “That’s different! You’re not in love with Roadhog and neither is Molly’s mother…” She paused and looked at Angela’s now burning cheeks, shocked, “You… you’re not… There’s no way…”

“I am still trying to figure that out…” She admitted bashfully, “But I do enjoy his company and he did give me consent to use his real name yesterday, which is a large show of trust for Junkers. And he invited me to go with him and Molly for his little birthday treat of taking her to the beach tomorrow. Although, it’s probably more because the three of us couldn’t go to the beach before and he is horrible with a camera…”

Fareeha gave her a confused look at that last part.

“How badly do you think Hana would take it if she found out that Roadhog didn’t take any good pictures of Molly’s first time at the beach?” She asked her.

Fareeha let out a shiver and nodded in understanding, a little pale and sounding just a bit hurt as she whispered that, “I just don’t understand, what do you see in him?”

Angela was surprised at the question, she thought this would be a repeat of the last time she talked about a man she admired, but found the fact that her friend was asking this instead of talking about all the crimes he’d committed or how violent he was on the battle field to be comforting.

“A man who is far kinder than most would assume at first glance.” She told her, “You’ve seen how he is with Junkrat and Molly, he protects them, he teaches them.”

“For Molly, yeah, but Junkrat? He seems more annoyed with him than anything.” Fareeha said plainly.

“Junkrat lost his parents in the Crisis and grew up in a radioactive world of survival of the fittest. Someone had to teach him how the rest of the world works, and that person was Roadhog. And while he is very patient, you’ve met Junkrat, he can be a bit… scatterbrained.” She said.

Fareeha looked as if she was about to say something mean about Junkrat, but stopped herself, instead saying, “Yeah…” before clearing her throat, “Anyways, that’s how you feel, but what about this Cheshire woman? How does she feel about Roadhog?”

“She made her feelings for him very clear. He made his lack of romantic feelings for her just as clear after he found out.” Angela said shortly. Not wanting to even think about them doing… _you know what_.

“Wait, how exactly did she make her feelings clear?” Fareeha asked.

Verdammt, Fareeha, es einfach in ruhe!

Urgh, too late! Mental images of them together were flashing in her head again.

“I don’t want to talk about it.” she said, her tone sickeningly sweet to the point of being flat out poisonous.

“But…”

Another knock on the door saved her from thinking further about it. “Angie?” Lena called from the other side of the door, “Molly’s got a bloody nose again!”

Angela drained the last of her cocoa and put her mug on her bedside table, got up from her bed and opened the door to see Lena holding Molly’s hand while the other hand covered her nose and mouth, Bob at their heels, looking up at her pitifully as if to say, ‘Please help my tiny human. _Please_.’

“What happened?” she asked her. Molly didn’t make eye contact as Lena explained that, “McCree bet her a euro tha’ she couldn’t hold Reinhardt up for foive minutes.”

“And?” she asked.

“She had him, Zarya, Genji, Junkrat, Lúcio, Symmetra, Hana ‘n I flyin’ through th’ air like Peter Pan ‘n company for twenty.” Lena said flatly.

“Oi! I loifted Bastion too!” Molly blurted, her voice a bit warped from covering her bloody nose and mouth, before quickly letting go of Lena’s hand and slapping it over her other hand, realizing that by admitting that, she was now in _huge_ trouble.

And _boy_ would she right about that if it weren’t her birthday tomorrow.

“I know. I was tryin’ not ta get ya inta trouble, luve.” Lena whispered back to her, obviously feeling bad that the kid had given herself up.

Molly looked up at her, “’m I in trouble?” she asked softly.

“You know you’re not supposed to exert yourself like that without permission.” Mercy said firmly.

“We was jus’ havin’ fun…” she murmured as her eyes sank back to the floor.

“But you all could have gotten hurt!” she scolded, watching as the child curled up a bit on herself, her cowlicks drooping a bit now. Angela sighed and bent down to her level, “Come on, let’s get you cleaned up and checked out so your father can still read you a bed time story.”

“…’Kay.” She said finally looking up at her and noticing Fareeha sitting on the bed, “Was we interruptin’ somethin’?” she asked softly.

“Nah.” Fareeha said, “I was just asking when she thought it would be okay for my mother and Jesse to teach you how to shoot.”

“’N?” she asked, trying not to sound too eager and failing.

“This does _not_ help your case.” Fareeha told her as she got up to collect the mugs, “And I got the fancy hot chocolate to try to win her over too!” she teased.

“Awww…” Molly moaned as Angela thanked Lena for bringing her to her and marched her into her little half bath in her room and held her over the sink.

“Why did you want to show off to him that badly?” Fareeha asked.

Molly held up a finger with an apologetic expression, silently asking her to wait until the nose bleed was taken care of, as Angela held her over the sink and turned the water on, Molly slipping her bloody hands under the water and started to rub them together.

Angela poured some soap on them and watched the reddish water spiral down the drain as more blood trickled out of her nose. After a few moments of hand washing and bleeding, her nosebleed stopped and Angela dampened a wash cloth and started wiping at her face, which Molly struggled a bit against, but ultimately was clean by the time she was done.

“It wasn’ tha’ I wanted ta show off.” Molly finally answered, “I wanted ta know some of me limits.”

“Didn’t they test those at Hyde?” Fareeha asked.

“Yeah, it don’ mean they ever told me or tha’ I could even understand ‘um if they did. I jus’ did what they said ‘n hoped tha’ I could survive it.” Molly told her, “I used ta be able ta hold up a…” she paused, “T…” she struggled to recall, “O…N…N…E. Still dunno what tha’ means or why it was written on tha’ thing or how long I was holdin’ it up or nothin’.”

Huh, she never thought about that, but it makes sense that the scientists would test Molly’s limits and that she wouldn’t know them, if she knew, it would be easier for her to rebel and escape. Keeping her and her siblings in the dark meant that the people at Hyde still had all the power because the children didn’t know just how much they had and if they could get away or not.

Wait, did she just say she literally held up a _tonne_? Like an actual _metric ton_?

She shook it off, she could freak out about that later, right now, she needed to be firm.

“From now on, we will do tests and keep track of everything, but until we come up with a good system of tests, you will_ not_ do something like that again, do you understand me?” She said sternly. Molly nodded vigorously as Angela put her back on the ground, “come with me, I want to make sure everything is alright on the inside before your bedtime story.”

“’Kay.” She replied. The two making their way to her office with Bob right behind them and, after a quick brain scan, she was happy to see that her brain activity was normal, she lead them back towards Mako’s room.

_Mako._

She was still a bit surprised that he gave her permission to call him by that name. To be honest she was still glad he hadn’t been upset with her for using his name without permission, let alone giving her consent to use it. Especially since Junker’s real names were so carefully protected and cherished, for him to trust her like that, she felt a little better about all this. Which was great because she didn’t want to be conflicted instead of enjoying tomorrow. Speaking of which…

“You excited for your birthday tomorrow, Molly?” she asked her.

“Yeah! Never had a party jus’ fer me ‘fore!” she said excitedly, “’N Hana said there’ll be presents ‘n cake ‘n pancakes ‘n ice cream ‘n..!” she continued to list all the things she was excited about Angela smiling softly at her as they reached the door and she knocked.

Mako opened the door and Molly happily latched onto his leg, “DADDY!” she squealed.

Angela watched the masked face, finding she could tell that he was smiling broadly at her before he started to chuckle and carefully pulled her off.

“She had a nosebleed, so she’ll probably fall asleep quickly tonight.” She informed him.

“Guess we’re readin’ a short one tonoight.” He decided before ushering both little ones into the room and telling them to pick a book, but staying in the doorway.

“Did ya foind yer camera?” he asked quietly.

“Yes, it was in my room, I made sure to put a new memory chip in and it’s charging now.” She told him.

“Thanks again fer all this.” He said softly, “It’s th’ foirst birthday she’s ever really gotten ta celebrate. Jus’ want ‘er ta enjoy it, ya know?”

She smiled warmly at him. For a one man apocalypse, he was the _sweetest_ daddy!

“She will. She’s so excited that I high doubt she _will _sleep, even if she did have a bloody nose today.” She told him.

“I hope not!” he laughed, “If she don’ sleep, then pancakes or not, she ain’ gettin’ up!”

They chuckled at that for a moment before they wished each other a good night and Angela started walking back towards her room, feeling much better. Like she could actually get some sleep that night without thinking about _that._

And she did.

She got up feeling refreshed and quickly scanned her closet, looking for just the right outfit. Molly had never had anyone celebrate her birthday before, she’d never been to the beach before and she never had a party just for her before today. All of this was long overdue and she was going to look her best for it.

Hmmm, what to wear, what to wear…

Perhaps a nice summer dress? She did have quite a few of those and it was fitting since they were going to a party after they were going to the beach…

In October.

It was October in Gibraltar, but still, October. So yeah, maybe not a _summer _dress.

The other dresses she had weren’t suitable either, they were more for evening galas or funerals or talks at conferences.

Hmmm… She _could_ redeem herself for the shower incident by wearing a nicer swimsuit under a nice blouse and skirt… but Roadhog said he wouldn’t let Molly in the water. Which was probably for the best since during their clothes shopping trip, they forgot to get her a bathing suit.

And Molly didn’t know how to swim so, there was that…

Well, the bathing suit thing aside, a nice blouse and skirt sounded like a nice idea. Not too formal, not too casual, no need to change when she got back…

She pulled several from her closet and laid them out on her bed and began picking through them quickly, not wanting to have to hurry through her pancakes while also wanting to narrow her options down quickly.

“Too short…” she said as she moved a denim mini skirt to the side before holding up one she had worn to church for a baptism a few years ago to see the length better.

“Too long.” She decided before tossing it with the mini skirt.

She went through a few more skirts before finding a nice white, _non-see-through _skirt that ended half way down her calves. The material was light and wouldn’t feel suffocating on the shores of Gibraltar and she could put on a pair of shorts underneath with no one the wiser.

After picking the skirt, she picked through her tops, finding a nice light blue sleeveless blouse and a short-sleeved white and blue striped dress shirt to wear as a jacket of sorts in case the wind was strong and cool. She brushed her hair and teeth, washed her face, put on a little make up, put her watch on and pulled her blonde hair into a nice ponytail.

She then slipped on a pair of comfortable sandals and quickly packed her camera, her new phone, a bottle of sunscreen, a small first aid kit, a towel and the present she’d gotten Molly, a stuffed toy firefly with a tail that actually lit up, into a beach bag before making her way to the mess hall. She didn’t know if she should bring the toy to the beach with them, or the mess of a pancake breakfast and to be honest, she didn’t think her present should be the first Molly opened today.

No, the first birthday present she should get should be from her father.

So she’d probably be giving it to her at the party, but it just made her feel all giddy packing it into her bag, imagining Molly’s face lighting up at the new toy as she did so. How could she not bring it?

She finally reached the mess hall door and opened it.

It would seem the promise of Jesse’s pancakes had been enough to get more than just Molly up earlier than usual, juding by the fact that everyone who could eat was up and chatting in a chipper fashion over large stacks of flapjacks.

She smiled when she found Roadhog, Junkrat, Hana, Lúcio, Satya and the happy little birthday girl sitting at a table, chatting while eating pancakes, with Bob munching on a little omelet on a plate on the floor. Jesse must not of wanted him to feel left out so he made him a little something special for breakfast too.

She smiled as she decided to give Molly a little birthday surprise before getting her pancakes. She tip toed behind her, the others noticing but not giving her away…

But that didn’t seem to be enough because Molly turned around anyway, smiling broadly at her, Angela caught with her arms out wide to give her a great big birthday hug, “Noice try, gotta do bettah than tha’ ta sneak up on a junker _‘n_ a moind readah!” She said smugly, strawberry jam on her lips, chocolate on her teeth and a bit of whipped cream on the tip of her nose.

Angela stood there, caught, before smiling broadly back and giving her a big hug anyways, “Nice try, but it will take more than getting caught to stop me!” she teased, making her laugh before wishing her a happy birthday.

“How are your pancakes?” she asked.

“They’re rippers!” she exclaimed happily, holding up her jam covered fork, “He even made a smiley face out of whipped cream and chocolate covered strawberries!”

“Did he now?” she asked, Molly nodding excitedly.

“Should I go get some?” she asked her, giggling. Molly nodded furiously, her hair flipping back and forth with her, some of the jam and cream on her face getting stuck in it and making Hana and Satya quickly work to clean her hair and face, much to her dismay, “But ’m not done!!” she whined as Angela chuckled as she made her way to the kitchen.

“Well, it’s about time you got here!” Jesse greeted with a laugh as he flipped another flapjack on the pan, “What took you so long?”

“I was preparing to help Roadhog with his surprise for Molly.” She explained as she watched him place the pancake from the pan onto a plate with several others.

“Which is…?” He asked teasingly.

“He’s going to take her to the beach. She didn’t get to go over the summer with the rest of us and to be honest, we really haven’t gone down there since, so she really hasn’t had the chance to even see it.”

“Huh, it really has been a while since we’ve last been…” he said thoughtfully as he began putting honey and sliced apples on her pancakes, just the way she LOVED IT. “Wait, thought you said she shouldn’t go near the ocean until we teach her how to swim...” He paused. “And get her a bathin’ suit.” He added.

“She won’t be going in. She’ll see the sunrise, play in the sand and maybe get her toes wet by the water’s edge. But that’s it.” She told him, surprised that he didn’t ask why she’d be going, but knew better than to ask why he didn’t ask.

He snickered as he passed her a plate of pancakes, just the way she liked them, “Good luck with that. In case you haven’t noticed, the kid’s got her ways…”

She stuck her tongue at him playfully before returning to the dining hall, noting that the others she planned to leave with this morning had already finished their breakfasts, with Junkrat surprisingly taking their dishes into the kitchen for them.

He gave her a big, toothy grin, his golden tooth shining briefly as he playfully warned her, “Shouldn’ eat too much of tha’. Hog loikes goin’ as fast as ‘e can ‘n eatin’ too much ‘fore yer foirst ride don’ usually go too well! Hell, usually eatin’ anythin’ ‘fore yer foirst ride don’ go well!” He let out a cackle as he entered the kitchen with dirty plates in hand.

She paused, thoughtful as she looked at her massive plate of pancakes, honey, apples and cinnamon. Would she want this coming up as much as she wanted it to go down?

…

Oh, who was she kidding? She wanted this so bad she could almost already taste it!

She happily ate them at the table while chatting with the others, Molly bouncing up and down with excitement as she told the rest of the table about the lastest book she’d read with her Dadhog.

She had finished her food just as Molly was about to start asking Hana questions about the party and Mako took that as his cue to tell Molly that he had a surprise first and led her and Bob to the garage with Angela right behind them.

He handed her two neatly wrapped packages, telling her she could open the bigger one now and the other in a bit. She unwrapped the first one eagerly, Angela taking a few pictures of her opening her first birthday present.

It turned out to be a helmet, she squealed and hugged it before she asked what it was. He carefully put it on her head before putting her, her remaining unwrapped present and her puppy in the bright yellow sidecar of his massive motorcycle and explaining that it was to protect her head while he drove as he pulled what was a mostly unused seatbelt from the corner of the seat. She noticed that there were several things packed in a massive bag on the bottom of the side car, towels, tiny flip flops, water bottles, and more when he went to the garage door and opened it for them. He then pulled on his chain and wrapped it around his massive gut, almost like a second belt and then looked at Angela.

He seemed a bit sheepish, to her surprise.

“Sorry, yer gonna havta ride behoind me. Ain’ safe havin’ you three all in th’ soide car.” He apologized.

“Is that why you wrapped your chain around you like that? So I could have something to hold onto?” She asked him.

He seemed to become more flustered, “Yeah. Shirts don’ exacty come in me size…”

“Hmm…” Angela inspected the size of the links in his chain, they seemed large enough to slip her fingers into without being pinched, “This will be fine.” She told him, “I do hope you have another helmet, though.”

He nodded and reached into the bag and pulled out another helmet, one suited for someone her size and handed it to her.

“Danke!” She said cheerfully as she put it on and climbed behind him and slipped on the seat of his bike, he made sure she had a leg on each side and that she had a firm grip on the chains. Meanwhile she was taking note of his pink ears and red bits of his face she could see. When he asked if they were all ready, she grabbed the chain wrapped around his middle and let out a confirmation as Molly called out for him to, “GO, DA’, GO!” With Bob barking loudly in agreement.

Angela felt the bike rumble to life beneath her, powerful and loud, momentarily fearful that if she dared let go that she would be thrown off the thing, like it was a bucking bull. But just with a simple lean and a flip of a switch, they were off with him in complete control. The wind howled pass her, the roar of the engine seeming to ward off the cold air from, Molly was not so lucky, but she seemed to be enjoying herself.

“FASTER, DA’, FASTER!!!” she laughed.

Angela peeked up and saw him looking back at her for a moment, silently asking if that would be okay with her. She smiled and griped the chain tighter before nodding to him.

His eyes brightened before he turned back to the road and she jerked backwards a bit from the force of their acceleration and heard Molly squeal along with the tires as they sped up. She looked out to the side and saw the world whizz past as Molly laughed and Bob’s wrinkly face flapping due to the speed they were going.

It was incredible feeling. The world flying past them, the bright moon still lighting the world around them, where sound was like a wall around her, cutting her, Mako, Molly and Bob off from the rest of the world. It was just them, the wind through their hair, the lovely scent of his silly pig label shampoo, the slap of the folds of Bob’s face moving around, the sound of Molly’s laughter and the slight bounce in the chain as Mako’s low voice chuckled with his daughter. She found herself joining them as they blew by blurred colors of the roadsides until it all came back into clarity as he slowed down to a stop.

The sounds and smells of the ocean seeped in as he did so, and while she usually found them calming, she wished that their moment of isolation from the rest of the world had lasted just a little bit longer as he carefully dismounted his bike and offered her his hand to help her off.

“Danke.” She said as she carefully accepted his silent offer, noting the redness she could see on his face and pinkness of his ears again as he helped her off of his bike before addressing to his daughter, who was looking at the tall grasses that blocked her view of the ocean, confused as he carefully removed her helmet and placed it into his bag, Angela handing him the one she borrowed with a soft, ‘Danke’.

“Where are we, Da’?” she asked.

“You’ll see.” He assured her as he helped her and Bob out of the sidecar and started carrying them towards the beach, Angela reaching into her bag and pulling out her camera and began taking picture as Mako made his way down closer to the beach and Molly said, “It smells koinda loike th’ docks ‘n by th’ cliffs, but it sounds different.”

“Really?” he asked her, amused.

“Yeah, by th’ cliffs it’s more…” she paused, “koinda swooshy, I guess? At th’ docks it’s more loike this, but it’s louder ‘er-…” Her eyes widened and she let out a gasp.

The sun was just starting to rise and dyed the sky and sea shades of purple, pink, orange and yellow, the clouds holding various shades as the sun slowly climbed into the sky. Angela took a picture of it and began carefully walking around the little family and taking pictures of them and the rising sun.

Molly looked at it in amazed, her eyes wide and watering, “It’s so pretty…” she murmured softly. Angela looked at her, an awestruck smile on her face and her violet eyes sparkling with unshed tears, the beautiful colors of the rising sun reflecting in them.

Angela snapped the picture before Molly quietly asked Mako if he could put her down. He put her and Bob down carefully, the little girl feeling herself sink and shift a bit in the sand, sending her to grab onto her father’s pant leg, her cowlicks wavy and low on her head, frightened and unnerved that the ground beneath her was so unsteady.

“It’s jus’ sand.” He told her softly as he lowered himself closer to her level, “It’s a little harder ta walk on, but you’ll get it. It moight help ta take yer shoes ‘n socks off ‘n try walkin’ with yer bare feet.”

She nodded, a little uneasy before carefully letting go of his leg and started removing her shoes and socks and handing them to Mako, her Dadhog holding out his hands on either side of her to act as railings in case she lost her balance again.

Angela found herself still taking pictures while this happened, gasping whenever Molly slipped and grabbed onto Mako’s arms for dear life before he’d softly coo that she could do it as he put her shoes and socks into his bag. He was far calmer than she was about this whole thing. Because she was honestly a nervous wreck right now, pressing the button every time Molly seemed to slide funny or suddenly lurch forward or backwards as if it would help Mako catch her…

She finally managed to walk to the water’s edge where the sand was easier for her to walk on and she looked down at the colors that shifted with the waves. She cautiously dipped her toe into the water and quickly yanked it back out, watching the ripples change the way the colors reflected in the water. She watched it, thoughtful before doing it again, this time with her other foot. When it yielded the same result, she then smiled broadly and jumped into the shallow water as it lapped onto the shores, laughing cheerfully, her cowlicks back to their usual happy heart curls on her head with Bob joining her, as if to both have fun and make sure his tiny human would be okay, the two splashing jovially as the water ebbed and flowed.

Then the water began moving in a way that was not natural.

Angela watched, stunned as water rose upwards towards Molly’s hands, the child’s eyes wide with excitement as it formed a basketball sized ball of floating water above her hands as she held it up to the rising sun, the water turning gold in the light. She then felt her finger press the button again, involuntarily and a thought bubbled up in the back of her head about how Hana was either so going to kill her for not showing her all of this better or insist that she join her in a video game with her nervous fingers of hers before she focused on the child’s smile fading into a small pout.

“It’s not th’ same.” She murmured sadly as she looked at the ball of gold colored water in front of her, “It don’ have all th’ colors…”

“Still pretty.” Mako told her as he gently ruffled her hair, but Molly’s pout persisted, “But I wanted ta show everyone how pretty it was…” She then watched, horrified as the gold color seemed to seep out of the ball and it faded into a sea green color.

“No!” she cried, her hands entering the ball as if to try and grasp the last bit of the beautiful sunrise and hold it in the ball. But, alas, her efforts were for not and the last bits of gold faded away and the ball fell to the ground, hitting the wet sand with a loud ‘splat!’

Molly began to sniffle, “I-I wanted to show everyone back at home… I wanted ta keep it ‘n show me brothers ‘n sisters at Hyde ‘n me Mum in Junkertown ta show ‘um how pretty it was... I-I…” Tears started to trickle down her cheeks as Mako gently patted her shoulder and pointed to Angela, “See tha’ thing in ‘er hands?”

“Yeah…” she managed through large, salty tears, “S-seen it ‘fore. She used it wh-when I foirst g-got ‘ere.”

“Tha’s a camera. Loike th’ one in me phone. She’s been takin’ pictures so we can show everyone what we’ve seen.”

“S-She did?” She asked, looking at her. Angela nodded and walked over and bent down, showing her all the pictures that she had taken. Surprisingly the photo she’d taken while in shock of the water ball forming showed that while the ball was gold, the sky, the clouds and her sparkling eyes showed the other colors of the sunrise.

“See, Molly?” she said, “You did catch all the colors, even if it was just for a moment.”

“I-I did…” she said softly, wiping at her face a bit and wincing at the salt on her hands that stung her eyes more. Angela gently wiped at a stray tear with her thumb, “You are such a sweet little girl for wanting to share this with everyone. I’m sure that when we find your brothers and sisters that they will be happy that you wanted to hold on to this so they could enjoy it too.” Mako pulled out a towel and gently wiped at her face and hands with it, Bob gently licking her leg to comfort her.

Once the three of them calmed her down a bit, Mako pulled out her second present, “Now tha’ we’re ‘ere. You can open this one.”

Molly happily accepted it, her tears from before seemingly forgotten as she tore the paper away and opened the box, revealing a plastic bucket and shovel, “What’s this?” she asked excitedly as she held the shovel up, curious. Mercy almost asked why she didn’t ask about the bucket too when she recalled that Molly was _very_ familiar with buckets, as she had used one as a toilet for years before they’d found her.

“Shovel. You can play with buckets ‘n shovels at the beach.” He explained.

“How?” She asked.

Mako laid out a large towel and began showing Molly the basics of making a sandcastle, Angela helping verbally in between taking pictures of the work in progress. Once she understood what she needed to do, she then began shoveling heaps of sand into her little bucket, ran to the water and ran back to the towel to begin sculpting and scraping at the wet sand she carefully postioned on the ground. Her eyes narrowed and focused while Bob chased off any seagulls and crabs that came too close and Angela and Mako sat on the towel and watched her. Within an hour, Molly had made a little replica of the Overwatch base in Gibraltar out of sand, fragments of wood that had washed ashore, coral bits, smooth rocks, shark teeth and seashells.

The two adults looked at it, a little torn. While it was a great piece of work, especially for her first time making a sand castle, it was an _exact_ _layout of their entire home_. If the wrong people saw this, their enemies could know the layout of the whole complex and use it against them. So they couldn’t just leave it, but they couldn’t wreck her little masterpiece either, it would break her heart and make her cry again. She’d already cried once on her birthday, they really wanted to keep her from doing it again.

Luckily the tide wiped it out for them so they didn’t have to choose risking their safety or making her cry, but still, Molly sat on her knees as she looked at the soggy remains of her work, on the verge of tears that all of her hard work had just been destroyed so easily.

“I took plenty of pictures!” Angela assured her quickly, “We can still show everyone back home!”

“Yeah, ‘n it ain’ loike ya can’ brin’ nothin’ back fer everyone.” He pointed out, carefully pulling out a piece of coral Molly had used in her work, “Think th’ Bastion unit back home would loike this. It ain’ loike it can go underwater or nothin’ ‘n ya said it loikes nature, bet it’d loike it.” Molly carefully accepted it from him, thoughtful as she turned the piece over in her hand while her Dadhog quickly rinsed her tools off in the ocean and brought them back to her, the little shovel in the pail.

Molly carefully placed the coral into the bucket before the two of them began digging through the remains of her work, Molly picking up each item carefully and inspecting them before they ended up in her bucket.

Soon she was skipping over the sand, Bob barking and bounding happily after her as she picked up little trinkets from the sea and sand and plopped them into her bucket.

Angela took a few more pictures of Molly finding little treasures before Mako asked her for the time, she glanced down at her watch.

“It’s almost ten.” She informed him, “The party is supposed to start at eleven, we should start heading back.”

He nodded and called for Molly, who ran up to them with a smile on her face as she seemed to struggle to carry her shovel, pail and shells with her, Bob running back and forth between them until Molly finally reached them. Mako bent down and looked at her haul, Molly had a nearly full pail of coral, stones, shark teeth and shells…

And trash.

Lots of it.

It would seem as though Molly was either helping the people of Gibraltar keep their beaches clean, or she was picking up pieces to be used in her next scrap sculpture.

Either way, her Dadhog offered to carry her bucket for her, which she cheerfully accepted, and the two held hands on the way back to his motorcycle (well more like Molly clung to his pinky and he made sure to keep at her pace) with Bob happily barking and circling around them and sniffing the bucket on occasion.

Angela was putting her camera away as she walked beside them when she felt a small tug on her skirt. She looked down to see Molly smiling up at her and holding her hand out for her.

‘Molly can have two Moms.’ Fareeha’s voice echoed in her head.

And she was right. She could.

Angela took the little girl’s hand and felt the child give it a tiny squeeze as her smile grew bigger.

‘And she will.’ She decided.


	37. Regrets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pharah is upset that Mercy seems to like Hog, Rat gets punched in the gut (without actually deserving it) and gives her some advice he really didn't want to give her.

The party was all set; streamers, balloons and little lights were strung from the ceiling; all tables were covered with tablecloths, confetti and little paper flower bouquets that the bots had made; the cake was properly made and frosted; the barbeque they would have for dinner was marinating in the fridge; the various snacks they made for everyone to munch on during the party were being placed all over the decorated tables. And he was currently over one of such plates, eagerly salivating.

“Looks good!” he said, reaching out to help himself to a samosa, only for Hana to slap at his hand.

“No snacking until the birthday girl gets here!” she scolded. He stuck his tongue at her playfully, making her chuckle, “If you don’t have anything better to do, why don’t you go find Pharah, we do still need to make those ‘control points’ and Roadhog and Mercy will probably be back with Molly and Bob soon!”

Hana had planned a special game for this party, just for Molly, and she was eager to see the little girl’s eyes light up to be playing a game that allowed her to pretend to be an agent of Overwatch, as it was similar to a few missions they’d had out in the field.

Molly would ‘capture’ her presents from the guarded ‘control points’ and bring them to the ‘base’ (mess hall) where she would open her presents before they’d have dinner. Now, once she captured her ‘objective’ from a control point and successfully brought it to her base, the people who had been controlling that ‘point’ would then be on Molly’s side to help retrieve more of her presents. There were eleven control points, with two people guarding each one.

Everyone would have various kinds of foam dart guns or foam weaponry (including Molly) instead of their real weapons (their real shields were okay, though). They would attack and defend as necessary, if someone got hit three times with a foam weapon, they’d have to sit out for five minutes. And the more they got shot, the longer the time they’d have to sit out, and that kind of time in this game was not good. But Rat had to admit, he was glad that this game was encouraging her to avoid any kind of fire, although he was sure that she could handle it, considering how well she’d done during the times she’d been held at gun point (The two that he knew of, anyway…) and her seemingly good control over her powers, he was sure she’d be fine, but this was a good way to insure that she would stay safe.

Now, while most of their group used guns, some of them didn’t. Like Mei and Winston.

Mei used ice and would freeze people, but since she couldn’t and didn’t want to do that to Molly, she simply used a gun. But it didn’t seem to bother her, she explained that, fundamentally she was used to a gun like weapon in her hands, so it wasn’t too different from her own weapon. Winston often had electricity arcing from his weapon, and since he didn’t want to shock anyone he cared about, he used a foam dart gun too, but, like Mei, it wasn’t too big of a deal since his weapon was basically like a gun to him anyway, so there wasn’t much of a difference except he’d have to be more precise with his aim.

Junkrat used explosives and Satya used sappers both in her gun and in her turrets, making their styles of defense different than Mei’s and Winston’s, but similar in that it wasn’t much like anyone else’s weapon. Since this was a bit different than most of the others in their group as well, Hana had to think carefully about how to address this. She had struggled a bit, but she had decided to have them both use dart guns with Rat was only allowed a few smoke bombs and no other explosives and Satya was allowed to use her moving shields, but no shield generators or teleporters.

Neither of them were very comfortable with the idea of using guns, even if they did only shoot out foam cylinders with suction cups at the end. Satya wasn’t a big fan of shooting people. Hell, Satya often left her turrets in key places and never looked back at the carnage if she could. (She did collect any of her turrets that survived the battles, but he and the others often helped her with that when her turrets were in areas of mass carnage.)

Rat had used guns before and could shoot, but he just didn’t like doing it. He preferred explosivesm way more fun and he had been shot at enough to not like guns. But, considering that both his and Satya’s preferred weapons were not something safe for a little kid’s birthday party, they both sucked it up.

Besides, they’d need all the fire power they could get, since, due to the fact that Roadhog probably gave Molly her presents while he took her out ot the beach (Rat had seen what he was getting her and told Pipsqueak). So, Hana decided to allow Hog to help her and Bob by being on her side for the first one before going to join whomever he had been partnered with, or as Rat happily declared, “Aw! ‘Er Dadhog will be helpin’ ‘er with ‘er foirst heoist!”

But him working with her and then leaving for the last solo person left would probably also mean that Molly would have to go up against her Dadhog for her last present. It would either be a difficult battle or her Dadhog would just step aside and let her do as she pleased.

He honestly had no idea how it would go.

“Rat!” The pro gamer called, snapping him out of his thoughts, “The points? Pharah? Help?”

“Fione, foine,” Rat agreed with a wave of his flesh hand, “Where is she?”

“I think she was near Mercy’s room last time I saw her.” She said thoughtfully before the two agents looked up at the ceiling.

“She is still by Agent Zeigler’s room.” Athena confirmed.

The two of them winked up at her and pointed at the ceiling and cried out, “Thanks, Dollface!” in unison before cracking up. Ever since Lúcio had showed off the statue Molly had made of Athena, everyone had been complimenting her looks with her often telling them that, ‘no, that’s not how I look’, automatically turning it into an inside joke.

“For the last time, Molly’s interpretation of me is not how I actually look.” The AI informed them.

“We know, we jus’ think it suits ya more!” Rat said cheerfully.

“Yeah! I mean, you are kind of like an all knowing God around here and she really did make you look great!” Hana confirmed with a broad grin.

“… I-Is that so?” She stuttered, surprising them.

“Uh huh.” Hana replied, shocked as Rat nodded in agreement, too stunned at the sudden stutter to say anything.

“I see. Thank you, Agent Song. Thank you, Agent Junkrat. That was very nice of you to say.” Athena said, sounding… Was she embarrassed?

Could a computer even get embarrassed?

Rat didn’t really get time to figure out via teasing because Hana began pushing him towards the dorms, “Alroight! Alroight! ‘M goin’, ‘m goin’!” He said.

He made his way to the dorms, taking note of the control points on the way there. After all, this was Molly’s first heist, he didn’t mind helping scoping out the place for her. Not that he’d let her get past him easily, but without his usual methods, it was more likely that she’d manage to swipe her presents from him and whomever he was partnered with without too much trouble, especially if she decided to come for him and whomever his partner would be first.

With her Dadhog.

“Oi, ‘Thena, ya moind makin’ a copy of Hog helpin’ Molls ‘n Bob for ‘im?”

“Certainly, but you do realize that it is just a game, don’t you Agent Junkrat, not an actual crime?”

“Yeah, but this Petah-whatevah act finally carks it, this’ll prob’ly be th’ only heist they’ll evah do together, ‘n it’d prob’ly mean th’ world ta ‘im ta have a copy of it.”

“Alright, shall I send it to his phone?”

“Tha’ be great, thanks!” He said as he turned the corner towards the girl’s side of the dorms.

When he made it to Mercy’s room and found Pharah curled up on the floor, her back against the door as she stared at something and looked down right miserable… And she was apparently so completely out of it, lost in her misery, that she seemed unaware that he was approaching her, despite his uneven gait and the unusual noise his peg often made against the floor.

Shite.

He looked up to the ceiling and mouthed, ‘Get Nan’ to Athena, not that he was really sure if she understood what he had just done as he slowed his pace and crept carefully along side the wall, as to not startle her while he got a good look at whatever she was holding.

She was holding a picture of her, her mother and Mercy, her fingers rubbing at her face as she sniffled.

Oh boy. He didn’t really get why she was crying over that picture, but he knew just having tough as nails Pharah on the floor sobbing was not good.

He squinted at the photo and watched as her fingers gently traced the side of a young Mercy’s face and…

Oh.

_Oh…_

Welp. That answered the question of_ why_ she was crying.

And while he wanted to do a little jig for his best mate getting the girl, he knew that he needed to be sensitive here. After all, he wouldn’t like it if some sheila was happy that he’d gotten turned down, it was only fair that he hold in the jig until later… When it wouldn’t be a reason for her to try to hunt him down and shoot rockets at him.

He looked up at the ceiling and mouthed, ‘Hurry!’ and hoped that Athena had gotten the message before slowly sliding down and beside her, the Egyptain still too absorbed in her own thoughts to notice.

Okay, so far so good. Now what did he do?

Greet her?

Maybe?

He had no idea, but it was the only thing he could think of, so why not give it a shot?

“G’day.” He managed, making her jump in surprise and punch him _hard_ in the stomach.

“Bloody fuckin’-!” he cried as he fell to the floor, regretting everything in that moment as she hopped to her feet, her cheeks red as she wiped at her eyes.

“THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?! SNEAKING UP ON ME?!” She demanded angrily.

“I was… thinkin’ tha’… ya weren’… _DEAF_.” He replied between gasps. Pharah’s fury faded into confusion before Rat lifted his peg leg, “Stealth… ain’ me… thing.” He told her, fingering the smoke bombs he’d put on his holster as further proof of this.

It wasn’t the complete truth to be honest, he would be quite sneaky when he wanted to, after all, there was a reason that he and Hog had been on the run as long as they had, and only part of that was their fighting prowess. Also, he couldn’t exactly steal anything if he truly sucked at stealth, so yeah…

But here on base? There wasn’t much of a reason to bother other than knicking stuff from the kitchen every now and then. And he hadn’t exactly proven otherwise while on a mission with Pharah yet, so she had no reason to not believe him.

Pharah bit her lip, looking a bit guilty now as she watched him groan on the floor. She seemed uncertain of what to say, her photo still in her hands before she sighed, sat back down and looked at the photo, her expression sullen.

“You’re right, you aren’t and I should have heard you coming.” She admitted softly before she swallowed hard, “I’m sorry I hit you.”

“Bloody oath, ya should be!” He managed before pulling himself back up into a sitting position, rubbing his stomach with a groan, “I was worried ‘bout ya ‘n ya fuckin’ sucker punch me in th’ gut-!”

He noticed her eyes were glassy with tears as she finally tore them away from the picture, “_You_ were worried about _me_?” she asked, flabbergasted.

“’Course I was!” He said, insulted, “You were curled up on th’ floor cryin’, what koinda bloke would I be if I didn’ check on ya?”

She opened her mouth to reply, then closed it, then opened it again, “Thanks, I guess. But I really…”

“I already asked ‘Thena ta get yer Mum, either ya can tell me, or you can tell ‘er.” He told her flatly.

“…” She turned to him and made a face, “Did you really have to involve my mother in this?”

“Oi, what do ya want from me? I ain’ used ta seein’ ya cry, I didn’ know what else ta do!?” He cried, exasperated.

She sighed and curled up a bit more on herself, “I just… I just wanted to be alone…”

“From my experience, cryin’ is what ya do because yer alone.” He said softly.

She tensed at his words and her eyes began watering again, “It’s Angela… she… she likes someone else and…” She glared at him, “If you hadn’t hired him…!”

“Wait, wait, wait, you _jus’_ found out Merc loikes Hog?” He asked.

“You knew about this?” she demanded.

“Thought everyone but them ‘n th’ bots knew.” He said with a shrug, deciding that it was best not to mention the bet McCree had going on who would make the first move (his money was on Mercy).

“And everyone else okay with it?!” she cried, “You two are international criminals! You have destroyed countless buildings, stolen priceless treasures and caused so much bloodshed-!” she paused, “No offense.”

“No worries.” He replied, waving his hand to dismiss the supposed slight. (The fuck he was insulted, a lot of their work was fucking brillant, if he said so himself. There were a few lives that he wished had been spared, but all in all, most of the people they’d killed had deserved it) Before looking at her, “But ya do know tha’, despite what we done, we are tryin’ to be bettah with all tha’ stuff. Turnin’ a new leaf ‘n all tha’. ‘N ain’ nothin’ wrong with loikin’ someone.”

“There is a big difference between liking someone’s company and having romantic feelings for them, Junkrat!” She snapped, “She said that she liked being around him but I don’t see how he can make her happy-”

“Who said _you_ had ta?” He asked, jabbing at her with a finger, “This is ‘bout _‘er _feelin’s not _yer’s_. If Roadie makes ‘er happy, shouldn’ you be happy for ‘er?”

She seemed pause at his words, thoughtful and a little surprised, while he went on, “I ain’ sayin’ ya ain’ allowed ta be hurt or nothing. But I ain’ gonna sit ‘ere ‘n let you shite all over me best mate ‘cause yer jealous tha’ someone you loiked fell fer ‘im!”

Pharah winced at that before curling back in on herself, “I-it just hurts. I like her so much…”

“If ya loiked ‘er, then why didn’ ya make a move or tell ‘er before?” He asked, “You ain’ exactly a sheila who has a problem sayin’ it loike ya see it.”

“I… I was scared, okay?” She said softly, “The thought of being rejected, of ruining what you have, and the pain of your heart being broken, it’s overwhelming. Like… Like losing a limb.” She said, only to stiffen and look at him as if she had insulted his mother, most likely forgetting that he had not lost a single limb, oh no, he’d lost _two._

He looked at his right leg and arm began rubbing his metal fingers against the joint of his peg, unable to really get himself to talk about how he lost them. Two mistakes. Two big fuck ups. But it wasn’t like he could get them back and he’d accepted that a long time ago.

He gently squeezed his leg with his metal arm, ‘Still, would be noice ta have ‘um back…’ he thought.

“Junkrat?” Pharah called, concern in her voice, “Are you okay?”

“’Pends on who yer askin’.” He replied with a half hearted giggle, “But anyways, I koinda get what yer tryin’ ta say; it’s loike losin’ a big part of yerself tha’ ya can’ get back.” He then pointed to her with his metal fingers, “But, even though I miss me limbs ‘n get phantom pains sometoimes, ‘m in a pretty good place now.” He gently patted her arm, “Jus’ takes toime. Talkin’ ‘bout it prob’ly wouldn’ hurt neither.”

“I’m not talking about this with my mother.” She said flatly, making him laugh.

“Nah, I ain’ sayin’ tha’, you need ta talk, but talkin’ with me or yer Mum won’ help. Ya need an outsoider’s perspective.”

“Hmmm…” she said, “That actually sounds pretty good. But since I’ve known most of the people here for a long time, I don’t think that’ll be as easy as you think it is.”

She had a point, she knew most of the old group due to her mother working here and growing up here. The newer ones, like Hana, Lúcio, Hog, him, Satya, Zarya were all for Hog ‘n Mercy being a couple. She needed an outsider’s opinion. Someone who wouldn’t let their own personal feelings in this…

No personal feelings…

_Like_ _the bots_.

The bots would probably be the best ones to talk with her about this, especially the metal monk as he seemed to be good at that sort of thing (according to Molly cause fuck if he’d talk to him about his problems).

But he didn’t want to suggest her getting help from a bot.

He momentarily debated not suggesting it out of pure principle, after all, the bots had done nothing for him or Hog in the past, why should he believe otherwise now? But at the same time, it wasn’t Hog or him that needed help here. And honestly, Zenyatta, or whatever his name was, was probably the most qualified out of anyone else here to help her, being kind of a monk and he’d helped Molly with her powers with that meditation stuff. If he could help Molly, maybe he could help Pharah too?

He shivered as he thought that, but he couldn’t think of any better option, so he grimaced and opened his mouth.

“I can’ believe ‘m ‘bout ta say this…” He groaned, “But what if ya talk ta tha’ bot, Zen?”

She soaked his suggestion in, the shock of him suggesting a loathed BOT to help her probably making it take longer, but she eventually gave him a smile he’d seen on her mother’s face more than once since she’d joined, “It’s actually a pretty good idea, but I still can’t believe you of all people would suggest…”

“I could tell yer Mum instead.” He threatened, not eager to have her repeat what he’d just done. She held up her hands in smug surrender, “No, no, talking with Zenyatta’s actually a good idea. I mean, if he could make Genji less angsty and moody, he can probably help me, right?”

“He did what?” He blurted, shocked at the thought of the cheerful, mischievous cyborg being anything like ‘moody’ or ‘angsty’. Hanzo, yes, definitely both of those things, but Genji? No.

But before she could explain what Genji was like years ago, they were interrupted.

“Fareeha?” A familiar voice called, they both turned to see Ana looking at them both with concern bright in her eyes, “Is everything alright?”

He caught a look of panic in Pharah’s eyes and quickly made a decision. He’d cover her now and make sure she told no one what he’d just said later.

“Sorry, Nan.” He said quickly, giving her a sheepish smile just to make it seem more real, “False alarm. Saw ‘er hunched over ‘n heard somethin’ tha’ sounded loike cryin’ ‘n thought she was hurt. Turns out she just smashed ‘er pinky toe really hard when goin’ ta see if she left somethin’ in Merc’s room.” He fibbed.

“And what was that?” She asked, her eyes narrowed.

“I brought her some hot cocoa the other night.” Pharah said quickly, “But when I was helping Reinhardt bring out utensils and plates, I realized that I couldn’t remember if I brought the mugs back to the kitchen or not after we had cocoa. So I came here to check before I set up a control point. I figure I must have taken them back to the kitchen since I couldn’t see them anywhere. I was on my way out when I slipped and smacked my toe against the door frame really hard.”

“I see. So why is there a red mark on Junkrat’s stomach?” Her mother asked.

“Testin’ me rock hard abs.” He said, giving his gut a gentle rap with his flesh hand.

“I didn’t hear him and when he came to check on me, my training kicked in and I punched him.” Pharah admitted, “Made him fall to the ground.”

“Oi!” He hissed, making both Amaris laugh before Ana set about helping him get back on his feet, his stomach aching a bit as she gently poked it with her fingers, “You’ll have some brusing, but nothing too serious. I can ask Angela to check when she gets back…”

“It mostly hurt me proide.” He said, which, again, wasn’t a total lie, but it still hurt a bit, much like any hit to the gut, but he’d been hit much harder and knew how it felt when something was really wrong. But the Elder Amari’s look was a stubborn one, and he knew just with one glance that she wouldn’t let up until he got checked out, “I’ll ask Merc ta give me a once over after th’ party. Don’ want Molls ta spend ‘er birthday worryin’ ‘bout me.”

“You’ll probably need some ice to help with the swelling and a shirt to cover any bruising then.” Ana said plainly, “At least until after the party.”

He nodded in agreement and made his way to his room, leaving the Amaris to themselves. He found a different shirt, (because he doubted Hana or Satya would forgive him for wearing the one from their shopping trip again today since he didn’t wash it yet) it was gray with a smiley face on it and no sleeves. He took off his holster, threw the shirt on, then threw the holster on top of it, hoping that Molly wouldn’t ask why he was wearing a shirt.

He could ask McCree to back him up and say that he lost a bet to him or something, but knowing McCree, if he lost a bet, he’d be doing something far more embarrassing than just putting on a shirt. Maybe losing one to Genji? Nah… Ana might probably make him put on a shirt if he lost a bet on Molly’s birthday and with him being nice to Pharah and calling for her because he was worried about her, she’d probably go along with it if anyone asked. Molly would probably buy it if they both confirmed it…

If she wasn’t a mind reader…

_Shite. _

He let out a sigh as he made his way out of his room. She may be a mind reader, but she was still a child with a short attention span, he could probably distract her with something to keep her from prying further. He was good at that…

“Junkrat?” a warm female voice called, jolting him from his thoughts.

“’Metra?” He replied, surprised, “What are you doin’ ‘ere?”

She was wearing a white and gold dress that ended at her knees, her arms covered in golden jingling bracelets (he liked those, they made nice sounds when she moved) and her hair pulled back into a braid. White sandals on her feet and a slight blush on her cheeks as she began tucking a stray strand of her dark hair behind her ear, “Hana asked me to get you, Molly’s a few minutes from the base and she wants everyone in the common room to greet her…” she explained.

“Bettah get goin’ then!” He said, motioning for her to lead the way.

But she just stood there for a moment before her golden eyes began to narrow, “Junkrat, are you trying to hide something?” she asked.

“Wha?” he said, surprised that she had caught on to him that quick.

“You don’t put on shirts unless we make you or you are hiding something.” She said firmly.

“I did it when we went shoppin’.” He reminded her, she seemed to nod, confirming this was true, but her gaze was still sharp and he decided he’d see if his lie would even work, “’N I guess ya can add losin’ a bet ta Nan ta tha’ loist too.” He said, funneling his frustration at the situation he was in into his tone.

“A bet?” She asked.

“Yeah, ya don’ wanna know.” He said honestly.

“I actually am quite curious.” She said calmly, her arms crossing over her chest.

Come on, Love, cut him some slack here!

He sighed, her face was pulled into a ‘well I’m waiting’ expression and he knew he wouldn’t be going anywhere until he spilled the beans, “Pharah was actin’ funny. Nan thought somethin’ was botherin’ ‘er, I thought she was jus’ knackered. Told ‘er I’d check, ‘n if I was roight, she’d need ta stop worryin’.”

“And Ana was right?” She asked.

“Yeah. ‘Parently Merc told ‘er tha’ she loikes Roadie ‘n she wasn’ takin’ it well.” He explained, hoping that Satya would leave it at that.

But nope.

She gently tugged at his shirt, a scowl on her face, “And Ana only made you put on a shirt for losing?” she asked, not buying it.

“After I talked ta Pharah for a bit, yeah. Got ‘er ta stop cryin’, figure tha’s why I got off easy, why?” he asked.

Her grip on his shirt tightened as she looked him right in the eyes, her golden eyes searching for something in his, he had no idea what she seemed to be looking for, but her hands pulled up on his shirt and revealed the red mark on his stomach.

He murmured a curse.

“What happened?” She demanded darkly, making his pulse spike a bit from the tone.

He gently pulled the shirt back down, “I was tryin’ ta see if Pharah was alroight, surprised ‘er ‘n she punched me in th’ gut. ‘M foine. Nothin’ broken or nothin’, she apologized ‘n she didn’ mean it.”

“She didn’t _mean it_?” Satya repeated, her tone angry as she gripped his shirt even tighter.

He carefully reached out and took her hands in his, hoping that she would calm down if he did this, (it certainly made him feel better) and began talking in a soft tone of voice as he gently slid the fabric of his shirt from between her fingers, “I said G’day, she jumped ‘n ‘er arm flew out ‘n hit me in th’ gut. Natural reaction. Done it a few toimes meself…” He paused, “Think Hanzo’s still mad at me fer th’ last toime I done tha’, now tha’ I think of it…”

She seemed to take this into consideration, which was a good sign to him, so he kept talking. He didn’t letting go of her hands, despite freeing his shirt, but he instead gently started rubbing his thumbs in circular motions on her hands, “’M only wearin’ it ‘cause Merc’s with Molly ‘n Hog or I’d get ‘er ta fix me up roight now, I swear. ‘M gonna ask ‘er ta take a look after th’ party, okay?”

She seemed to struggle to try to stay angry at him, only to let out a huff and gripped his hands tightly, “Please try to get it checked sooner than that.” She asked softly.

“I’ll try, Love.” He promised before gently pulling her towards the mess hall, “Come on, we’ll be late fer th’ party ‘n Pipsqueak will get all riled at us!”

She said nothing, but grasped his fingers tightly with her own as they made their way to the mess hall.


	38. It's on

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The game begins...

The game was on.

The rules were simple; Molly and her team had to get her presents from the ‘control points’ to the mess hall with the least amount of foam darts hitting them.

Three strikes and the person who was hit would have to sit out, if they got more, they’d have to sit out for longer and longer periods of time. (And good on Pipsqueak for encouraging everyone to _not_ get hit by the darts.)

When Molly’s team brought the presents to the mess hall, those who had been guarding would join her team. Everyone had some kind of foam weapon, with a few people having a few other things, like smoke bombs (Rat) flash bangs (McCree), sheilds (Reinhardt, Orisa, Brigitte and Symmetra), foam physical weapons (Genji, Reinhardt and Brigitte) and, in Torb’s case, a turret that shot out foam darts.

“Why don’ you have turrets loike tha’ too, ‘Metra?” Molly asked her as she seemingly scratched at her temple as if confused, Hog watching as her fingers rubbed more than scratched at her skin.

That little scamp was peeking into their minds!

Clever girl!

“I’ve never had a turret that has let out individual shots before, everything they’ve shot since they were prototypes were a steady stream, I didn’t have a chance to make one that could do that this year, perhaps next year I’ll have it perfected.” She explained before Hana continued her explanation.

To start, Roadhog was on her team with Bob, since she already got his presents earlier. He would join whomever his partner was after helping Molly nab her first round of presents and whomever was guarding it would join her team in his place.

He and Molly sat in the mess hall while Lúcio passed out the foam weapons and Hana explained that she used an online randomizer to pick the partners and called them out.

The pairs were: Zenyatta and Bastion, Orisa and Genji, Hanzo and Pharah, Brigitte and Lúcio, McCree and Zarya, Junkrat and Morrison (Poor blokes), Hana and Ana, Winston and Torbjörn, Reinhardt and Symmetra, Mei and Lena and…

_Roadhog and Mercy_.

Hana whispered their placements to each pair before they moved out, telling Angela where they would be stationed and telling her that she should text the location where their spot was after Molly got her first couple of presents. Hog felt his face flush as Hana and Ana smirked at him and gave him a thumbs up before leaving and his face felt like it was on fire when Angela smiled at them both and waved good bye. Lúcio snickered at him as he passed him a massive plastic gun and extra darts before giving Molly a small one and quickly darting away on his skates before he could grab him.

Once the weapons had been all doled out, Athena started a count down of five minutes for everyone to get to their places and set up their defenses.

He looked down at his daughter as they watched the last few people leave for the hall, Bob sniffing at her heel curiously.

“So, who do ya wanna go for foirst?” He asked her, surprising her.

“I get ta pick?” She said, giving Bob a pat on the head.

“Yer boirthday, yer party, yer pick.” He told her.

“Then I wanna go fer Rat ‘n Morrison!” She said, “Rat apparently scoped th’ place out fer us while helpin’ with prep ‘n Morrison’s got years of military tactics in ‘is head.” She said, tapping at her own head before looking up at him, curious, “What do you think, Da’?”

“Sounds good ta me. Was thinkin’ ya’d wanna go fer th’ ninjas foirst, struth.”

“They’d be a good team mate ta start with, but Pharah needs a few minutes ta talk with Zen ‘n I don’ think startin’ with ‘Risa ‘n Genji would be a good idea, they got a shield ‘n a ninja. Maybe we’ll go fer Pharah ‘n Hanzo aftah, but I think havin’ smarts ‘n surproises is a pri-proi…” she paused and pouted, “Proiro…” she tried again.

“Proiority.” He offered. Wondering why the hell Pharah would need to talk to Zenyatta, but decided it was best not to ask. At least, not now. After the party, maybe.

“Yeah, tha’!” She said.

“Didn’ know ya were such a strategist.” He teased.

“A what?” She asked.

“Someone who comes up with plans.” He explained.

“’M not all tha’ good with plans, I jus’ played a lot of spy games with Hana this week. ‘N those games won’ help me foind where everyone is…” She paused, thoughtful, “Oi, ‘Thena, did Hana say we couldn’ ask ya ta give us a map of control points, did she?”

“No, she did not.” The AI confirmed, “But I believe it would be cheating to show you those. Which would be wrong since this is supposed to simulate an actual mission, where you cannot cheat your way through it.”

“If this was a real mission, we’d have intel ‘n maps of points of interest.” Hog pointed out.

It was quiet for a moment before the AI finally replied, “It is true we would have intel and maps for a real mission, but giving you all of the points seems unfair.”

“We only need ta know where Rat ‘n Morrison are, tha’s all. We can take it from there.” He assured.

“… Very well, they are by the pool.” Athena informed them.

Well, Rat was probably not happy right now; he wasn’t paired up with his crush, he was paired up with an ornery old military man who often got on his ass for, well, everything, and he was now by a pool and he couldn’t swim.

Yeah, Molly had the right idea getting Morrison and Rat first, One of them would probably blow if they left them for too long.

“Thanks Doll face!” Molly said, giving her a thumbs up, Hog was confused but he had a feeling that either Rat or Hana had something to do with this, so he left it alone. (He could ask Rat later.)

“So what’s yer plan?” He asked her.

“Dunno yet, need ta see th’ set up foirst, but I do know tha’ part of it is _not_ knockin’ Rat inta th’ pool.” She said firmly.

“You sure?” He asked, “Morrison would have ta get ‘im, would give us plenty of toime…”

“No!” She said firmly with a stomp of her foot, “No pushin’ Rat in th’ pool!”

“Foine, foine.” He said before gently ruffling her hair, “We won’ push Rat in th’ pool, but Morrison’s still fair game, roight?”

“Can ‘e swim?” She asked.

“Prob’ly.” He shrugged. Molly looked up at the ceiling.

“Yes Molly, Strike Commander Morrison can swim.” Athena informed them, “There are also ten seconds until the game begins.”

“Thanks Doll face!” Molly said, giving her another thumbs up.

“Molly, please stop calling me Doll Face.” Athena said, “I know it is your birthday and you are to get special treatment today, but I prefer if you use my proper name.”

“Sorry, ‘Thena.” Molly apologized.

“Game begins in five… four… three… two… one… Capture your objectives.” Athena said.

“Okay!” Molly said as she led the way to the pool, Bob right behind her and Roadhog bringing up the rear, noticing that she was speed walking, most likely conserving her energy for the first heist. Or for being extra careful in case she slipped and fell, which had happened the first time she went near the pool, she ran near it to get a better look, slipped, fell and he had nearly emptied the damn thing while jumping in after her to keep her from drowning. She’d found the experience both scary and a little fun, but she was told if she was to go in there again, she was not to go into the water without someone going with her and she was not to run by the pool’s edge.

“Da’ we need ta ‘memba where everyone else is if we spot ‘um.” She said as she led the way, “Jus’ in case we can grab more than one group of presents!”

He smiled broadly, for her first (and somewhat pretend) heist, she was really doing a good job, she was looking for loopholes, striving for more information and strategy, thinking about how to she could increase her loot while planning her score.

_He was so proud right now..._

Molly stopped halfway there and motioned for them to go close to the wall before pointing up ahead where Angela and Rat were walking up the hall, “Thanks again, Merc. Figured it weren’ nothin’ too bad, but I promised ‘Metra I’d get it checked out ‘fore th’ party ended.”

“Well, nothing or not, I’m glad you did come to me to get it check out as soon as you did.” She narrowed her eyes at him, “I do wish you would tell me why there was a fist shaped bruise on your stomach.”

“Spooked someone who wasn’ payin’ attention.” He said with a cackle. Hog narrowed his eyes, angry. Even now that they were best friends, even here where they had constant wages and very cushy lifestyles (compared to what they’d had before), Rat was _still _paying him a share of his own cash out of his own pocket. So, he was still Rat’s bodyguard. The fact that someone left a mark meant that he’d be paying them a visit after Molly finished her first heist. The question was, who did he need to ‘talk’ to.

“Hmmm…” She hummed thoughtfully.

“Well, bettah get goin’, Old 76’ll get mad at me if I don’ get there soon!” he said cheerfully before waving and making his way to the pool. Angela sighed and looked to the ceiling, “Athena, do I really want to know…?”

“Is Rat gonna be okay?” Molly asked, making Angela jump before noticing Molly poking her head out from behind the corner with her puppy and Daddy.

“He’ll be fine, it was just a bruise.” Angela assured her before asking, “Molly, do you know who hit him?”

“Maybe…” She said, sliding away from the corner.

“Molly…” Angela warned.

“… It was Pharah.” Molly poked her head out more to tell her that, “Wasn’t on purpose! She was upset ‘n Rat was checkin’ on ‘er! She didn’ hear ‘im ‘n hit ‘im. She said she was sorry!” She said simply, “He got ‘er ta talk ta Zen, so she’ll prob’ly be okay…”

Angela looked at her closely, “Molly, why was Pharah upset?”

Molly said nothing, obviously not wanting to tell her as she looked to Bob, as if silently asking for help, only to get a look that said, ‘I got nothing, sorry’ before getting a few apologetic doggie kisses, her cowlicks drooping at that.

“Oh?” A female voice called, gathering their attention to Ana as she walked up to them, “What brings you all here?”

“Ana, do you know why Pharah was upset earlier?” Angela said plainly.

“She stubbed her pinky toe, didn’t she?” She said simply before looking to Molly, “I would have thought you would have told her that.”

“Thought it would be ‘mbarassin’ for ‘er.” Molly murmured, her cowlicks drooping more. Ana gently patted her head, “More like you didn’t want Angela to fuss all over her during the middle of the game.”

Molly’s cowlicks drooped more, “We can wait ‘til she checks ‘er out ‘fore startin’…” She conceded softly.

“I already checked her toe, she’s fine.” Ana assured them, “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to put up the last of my defenses.” She then gently ruffled Molly’s hair before passing them towards wherever her point was.

“… Honestly.” Angela sighed before looking at Molly, “Embarrassing or not, I’d rather you tell me the truth next time.”

“Okay…” She murmured. Angela gave her a warm smile and gently ruffled her hair and wished them good luck with their first round as she walked away, assumingly to the place where he’d met her later.

Roadhog quickly pushed thoughts of what they could do to pass the time away (not that it was dirty or anything, but chess probably wasn’t the best idea here) before looking down at Molly, “What _really_ happened?” He asked once Angela was out of earshot.

“… Pharah was sad tha’ Angie picked you ‘n not ‘er.” She said softly, “Said tha’ she really loiked yer company ‘n yer koinder than th’ most people think. Real carin’ too.”

“Tha’ why she hit Rat?” He asked, struggling to keep from smiling at the thought of Rat dancing at this information, hell, he was tempted to dance at this fact too, he knew she liked him a lot, but calling him _kind and caring_? This was putting it on another level and he was really fucking happy about it.

“No, tha’ really was an accident.” She assured him, “’E didn’ do nothin’ ta piss ‘er off, she jus’ didn’ hear ‘im comin’ ‘n when ‘e called out, she hit ‘im outta reflex.”

“So, no victory dances?” He said, a smile quickly curling up his face.

“’E nearly did, but ‘e knew bettah.” She replied with a small smile, “Think ‘e would’ve done tha’ one ‘e does on ‘is moines ‘fore ‘e blows ‘um up if ‘e did, though.”

“Tha’s always a classic.” He agreed with a chuckle as they made their way to the pool, stopping when they saw the path they’d have to take would pass through Reinhardt and Symmetra’s point.

“No turrets.” He reminded them. Bob sniffed the air, as if to double check, only to give a slight nod of his furry head to them.

“No.” Molly agreed, “But we still need ta know what’s happenin’ at th’ pool foirst. ‘N I wanna snag one of Rat’s smoke bombs ‘fore I give them a try. It’ll make it easier ta sneak past.”

His eyebrows rose, impressed, before looking at the ceiling, “’Thena, would it be foine if we had a map that shows the points we see as we play so we remember where they are?”

“Agent Song approved of that for this game, I will bring it up when needed.”

“Ta.” He said before Molly motioned for him and Bob to follow her another way to the pool.

Morrison was giving Junkrat a hard time, with Rat barely restraining himself to not act up to piss him off more while Molly squinted at the two of them before asking Athena for their map so far. She stroked her chin with one hand and stroked Bob’s furry head with the other, “Hmmm…” she hummed thoughtfully.

Hog smiled as he watched her work, poking and proding at the map, spinning it and looking at Morrison and Rat.

“’Ere’s th’ plan, Da’.” She said, “Bob ‘n me are gonna run in ‘n pretend loike I was runnin’ from Reinhardt ‘n Metra, you sneak in through th’ changin’ room ‘n hook th’ presents, then I’ll snatch a bomb offa Rat, ‘n lead ‘um ta ‘Metra ‘n Reinhardt, have them all get distracted by what ‘m doing while you snatch those presents too. Then ya hook us ‘n we all run to th’ mess hall!”

“With four people on our backs?” He reminded her.

“I’ll steal two bombs?” She offered.

“Or we could check the workshop…” He said thoughtfully. Rat probably had plenty of smoke bombs in there and he’d worked with Rat long enough to know which explosives were which, so he wouldn’t grab the wrong thing and blow anyone up by mistake.

“That would be against the rules.” Athena informed them quietly.

“Hmmm…” Molly pouted.

“What if we go with your plan only after I grab yer presents, we grab Rat?” He offered, “Use him a shield? Can’ shoot their own teammate, now can they?”

“Tha’s mean Da’!” She scowled, her cowlicks pointed as if scowling along with her.

“It happens in the field, Love, no way ‘round it.” He told her, but he could tell just from the look on her face, she wasn’t going to have it.

“Alright, why don’ you take ‘is gun ‘n I’ll hook ‘im? Then you push Morrison in th’ pool ‘n then we run ta ‘Metra ‘n Reinhardt’s?”

“I take both their guns, then we do tha’.” Molly said firmly.

“Both their guns?” He repeated.

“Morrison can still shoot us from th’ pool, plus I don’ think he’d have much of a problem shootin’ Rat.”

“In tha’ case we should jus’ snag ‘um both after ya grab their guns ‘n take ‘um with us as hostages…”

“Hostages don’ get hurt, roight?” she asked.

“Tha’s usually th’ goal.” He said with a shrug. Deciding that it was best not to tell her that sometimes that goal wasn’t reached. Sometimes that goal was never intended on one side and made sure that _their_ goal of killing the hostages were reached.

In their heists, he and Rat had taken hostages on occasion, but they did their best that they didn’t get hurt (Or else risk having no leverage at all) and actually treated many of them with care (except the assholes, they had no problem forcing them to shut up).

“...I dunno, I still don’ loike it.” She said softly. Then paused, “Athena, did Hana say I couldn’ use my powers ta jus’ bring th’ presents ta us?” she asked.

“Yes.” Athena confirmed.

“Did she say I couldn’ use them on nothin’ else?” she asked.

“No, no she did not.” Athena informed them.

Molly looked eagerly up at him, Cheshire’s impish grin broad on her face, “Da’, we need ta go back ta ‘Metra ‘n Reinhardt!”

“Why’s tha’?” He asked.

“We’re gonna steal a shield ‘fore we steal th’ presents!” She told him cheerfully.


	39. And then there were two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Molly is apparently really good at this game, Mercy thinks about punching Moira in the face and slight flirting?

Angela was shocked to hear Athena announce that not only had Molly, Bob and Mako had taken two control points, but they had taken ones from Jack, Junkrat, Satya and Reinhardt.

Two experienced veterans and two very clever strategists, granted, the two strategists were limited to foam guns, smoke bombs and moving shields and nothing else, but still, the veterans surely should have made up for that…

It wasn’t until Athena showed the highlights of the plan to everyone that she understood how they’d managed.

Molly and her team had made a false attempt at a sneak attack, with Symmetra launching one of her shields to defend her and Reinhardt from the foam darts…

Only for it to stop in mid air and follow Molly’s team as they retreated with a ‘Thanks ‘Metra!’

Then they made their move on Junkrat and Morrison at the pool. Junkrat couldn’t swim and using a smoke bomb in that small, confined space would make it far more difficult to avoid falling in the pool, since he wouldn’t be able to see. So he was limited to his gun. Jack was far more experienced with guns, but one of Symmetra’s shields popping out of seemingly nowhere while Molly and Mako charged in and shot at them, making them fall back while Bob dragged the presents to his teammates and then they picked them up and fled.

They dragged the shield with them _back_ towards Symmetra and Reinhardt’s point, only for them to stop short and hover up to the ceiling, being held up by the shield and letting Junkrat and Jack run past them, ask Symmetra and Reinhardt if they’d been by there. Then the shield lowers them down, Mako hooks the presents and they run to the mess hall with the shield floating behind them, stopping any shots and hammer swings until they got to the mess hall.

She was watching it again, chuckling at unique way they managed to snatch the presents with, when Mako sent her a text asking, “Where are you?”

She felt her cheeks blush and it took a moment for her to remember that they were on the same team before she sent the location of their point to him and waited.

When he arrived, she gave him a playful smirk, “I assume if we play this again next year, Hana will have to put more restrictions on what Molly can and cannot do with her powers?” she asked.

“I’ll wish ‘er luck with tha’.” He chuckled as he joined her, “Molly’s a smart girl, she’ll foind a way no matter how many rules someone puts in place.”

“Hana might have to make up a new game, then.” Angela joked.

“What makes you think tha’ll stop Molly?” He asked, “In case ya didn’ notice, not much stops ‘er.”

“Except you.” She pointed out.

“Nah, she stops me.” He said, sounding a bit happy about that, “I doubt I’ll be able ta stop ‘er when it counts.”

“I don’t think so.” She said, “Molly is a good girl who only wants to make you proud of her. If she knows something isn’t right, she’ll come to you to help her stop it.”

He seemed uneasy at the thought of that, but before he could say anything, Athena informed them that another two points had been taken.

“Tha’ll be th’ ninjas, prob’ly.” He said with a chuckle, although if it was his child’s skill in leading her team to another victory or that he was relieved for the topic change, she couldn’t tell.

“She said tha’ she wanted ta get Rat ‘n 76 foirst ‘fore she got them.” He said.

Sure enough, Athena announced that Genji, Orisa, Hanzo and Pharah were now on Molly’s team.

“She came up with tha’ shield plan all on ‘er own. Hard ta believe she didn’ know how ta talk jus’ a few months ago.” He said softly as they watched the play by play of them trapping Hanzo and Pharah with Reinhardt and Symmetra’s shields and a nearby wall and snatching the presents from under Orisa and past Genji with nothing but a smoke bomb and 76 covering for Bob as he dragged the presents towards the rest of them by their ribbons.

“Moira did mention she was quite clever when she was tested.” Angela reminded him as he watched Molly smiling with four more presents in her arms, “She probably had to think on her toes a lot when she was in Hyde, much like you and Junkrat did in Junkertown.”

“It better _not_ have been loike when we were in Junkertown.” He growled, “_Or else_.”

She nodded in approval of the threat, although, the data on Molly’s stick reported of an incident where she _had_ actually been shot. The bullet only grazed her, but the sight of the small light colored scar on the child’s side always made her burn a bit inside.

And make her desire to punch Moira in the face next time she saw her all the more potent.

Wait… now that she thought about it, shortly after that little… ‘incident’ in Italy where Blackwatch was exposed to the world, Moira left. That incident was… roughly nine years ago now.

It never said when the eldest of the hundred children had been born on Molly’s stick, but she knew that Molly had been one of the last ones, since they learned that they had counted down by order in which the children had been born via the stick. Moira had confirmed that when she claimed that ‘010’ had born the day after Molly, who had been M011, had. She silently did the math, Molly would have been conceived a few months after she left. So Moira must have joined this little project merely days after leaving and she probably joined the future Ministers of Oasis not to long after 001 was most likely conceived.

That witch had taken no time to start playing God with who knows how much stolen genetic material.

And who knows if Molly and the siblings who _were_ born were the only ones she mixed together? How many lives did she create only to snuff out when the DNA didn’t line up exactly as she wanted it to?

She remembered when she first met the Irish ‘doctor’, she had just come from a mission and was dressed in her Valkyrie suit. She could still hear the mocking snicker in her voice as she said, “I see _someone_ has a God complex.”

She felt her body shake a bit in fury at the memory, that _draecks votze_ plays with innocent unborn lives and sends orders that led the poor children that she allowed to survive to die and _she_ is the one with the God complex?

“Mako, next time we see Moira, may I ask that I have first shot at her?” She asked, surprising him.

“Uh, sure, why?” He asked, surprised.

“Payback.” She said simply, still angry.

“Yeah?” He asked, his voice light with amusement at the thought of getting sweet, sweet payback on someone who picked on his friends and daughter, “Whaddya have in moind fer ‘er?”

She felt a smile come to her face, “Well, the first thing that comes to mind is a refreshing punch to her face.” She said lightly.

“Tha’ does sound refreshin’.” He agreed, “But ain’ tha’ against yer oath?”

“My oath?” she replied, not following.

“Yeah, don’ doctors all pledge tha’ ‘’bove all else, do no harm?’” He asked.

“Sometimes one must do harm to do good.” She countered, “Like when I had to snap Molly’s nose back into place.”

“I think you’ll be snappin’ th’ witch’s nose out of place.” He teased.

“One can only hope.” She replied, making him laugh so hard, the pig on his stomach bounced.

“Molly and her team have captured the objectives.” Athena announced once more, making them both freeze.

“… Ya know, the ninjas were taken out pretty quick, but tha’ was much faster than ‘fore.” He said as more screens appeared and showed three more teams being taken down.

“She’s gotten seven teams already?” Angela said, surprised and a bit concerned.

Molly wasn’t supposed to be getting her presents this fast.

“Yeah.” He confirmed, “She got Ana, Pipsqueak, Torb, th’ ape, ‘n th’ bots.”

“How…?”

“’Risa, ‘Metra ‘n Genji went up against th’ Ape ‘n Torb.” He reported, “’Risa put a shield up ‘gainst th’ turret at th’ intersection of th’ hall ‘n ‘Metra sent one up with Genji. ‘E snatched it ‘n they all left, Torb ‘n th’ Ape couldn’ follow roight away ‘cause of th’ shield blockin’ th’ way.”

Angela paused, thoughtful, recalling Molly asking if the Crusaders truly did use themselves and their shields as obstacles to block pathways off back in the day shortly after Mako and Junkrat had left for a mission and Reinhardt had cheered her up with a little tea party. She had asked why they hadn’t simply left their shields behind and left, only for her to tell her that the shields could have easily been knocked down back then, there would be nothing supporting the shields to keep them in place.

But Orisa’s shields _did_ stay in place without someone behind them to hold them up.

And with it’s size, it completely blocked the hallway, so no matter how hard Winston shoved or how squirrely Torbjörn could be, they couldn’t follow until the shield wore off.

“Morrison made a show of doing a sneak attack from the side, only for Rat ta use a smoke bomb ‘n fer Hanzo ta steal it before they all legged it.” Mako informed her.

That one was similar to what they did when Mako was still on Molly’s team, and while it wasn’t as surprising of a strategy, Junkrat had followed a nonviolent (even if they only had foam dart guns) plan to get something from Zenyatta and Bastion, which was a feat within itself to pull off.

“’N Molly ‘n Bob walked up ta Pipsqueak, askin’ ‘bout th’ rules while Reinhardt snuck up behind them, placed his shield between them ‘n th’ presents ‘n Pharah snatched them ‘n legged it before they had a chance ta fire at them.” He said.

Another nonviolent approach, she really didn’t want anyone to get hurt, but she wouldn’t be able to do that forever. In a real mission, there usually was at least one person who got hurt. They’d been really lucky to only get scrapes and cuts and bruises and nothing really serious in most of the missions they’d had since finding her (up until Mako got a bullet to the butt). But Junkrat had gotten shot just from trying to keep Molly from having to sit and listen to everyone learn about where she came from and pity her while taking her to get things for her new puppy.

Molly probably knew better than everyone else that keeping everyone safe in a real mission was far more difficult then asking the enemy the rules of war while your teammates steal their stuff…

Yet she was doing her best to make sure no one sat out.

So why?

“Why is she working so hard to have nonviolent victories?” She found herself asking aloud.

“’N ‘ere I thought you’d be proud of ‘er fer tha’.” He chuckled.

“I am!” she blurted, “It’s just, I would have thought that she’d want to have a little bit of a confrontation…”

“Three strikes ‘n she has ta sit out. From gettin’ ‘er presents durin’ ‘er foirst birthday party jus’ fer ‘er. How much you think she’d loike tha’?” He asked her, a bit of teasing in his voice before he glanced around, cautious, “’N besides, you really think she’d want ta shoot at any of us? Even in a game?”

“…No.” she said with a smile, “I do not.” She began looking out for any sign of Molly’s team, “I do think that Hana will have to figure out how to encourage Molly to go all out instead of going for this route, I’m a bit worried that she might try to crawl around the vents to sneak around.”

They then heard a voice from above, “How did you know?!”

They both jumped and looked up, surprised.

“I thought I was bein’ super careful by hoverin’ through them so no one could hear me!” Molly whined as the vent cover popped out and fell down along the wall and she flew out of the vents and onto the ground with a furious pout, “So how did ya know I was there!?”

“I didn’t until you said something.” Angela said, a smile forming on her lips, “I was actually joking, I had no idea you were actually in the vents!”

“So… I gave meself away?” She asked, her irritation fading away to embarrassment and sadness.

Mako gently ruffled her hair, “Prob’ly bettah tha’ you did. If you got hurt or stuck up there, we’d have no idea where you were ‘n tha’ wouldn’ be a good way ta spend yer birthday.”

“I guess…” she said softly.

“There ya are!” Torbjörn called as he and Bob walked over, “Come on, lose tha’ frown! Bastion agreed to th’ plan ‘n he’s ready to go!”

Molly let out a happy gasp before giving Mako a hug and waving good bye before following Torbjörn’s metal finger, with Bob right behind her.

“’N you two better prepare yerselves. ‘Cause we’re savin’ you two fer last!” He said before following the little ones of the base out of sight.

The two stood there for a minute before Mako said, “Well, if we’re gonna be last…” He carefully moved the present she had gotten for Molly a little to the right before he lowered himself towards the floor and sat with his back to the wall, “Moight as well get comfy.”

Angela stared at him for a moment before starting to giggle, “Are you sure you feel comfortable enough?” she teased.

He stared back at her for a moment before slowly sliding down the wall, “Dunno.” He said as he slid until he was laying on his back on the floor, putting his arms behind his head, “Feelin’ pretty comfortable roight now...”

“You don’t say!” she laughed.

He moved his arm as if to wordlessly offer her a spot next to him. She smiled and moved as if to sit in the spot he motioned to, only to then sit with her back to his stomach, the skin on her shoulders starting to tingle as they touched the side of his pig tattoo. “You maybe able to lie on the floor like that and stay comfortable, but I cannot. It would kill my back.”

“But my stomach is foine fer it?” He laughed, his stomach bouncing and jerking her forwards a bit.

“It is when it’s still!” she cried, unable to hide her laughter and not really bothering to try. The two of them were practically rolling on the floor, laughing at themselves before Athena reported that the other remaining teams had been defeated.

But the methods didn’t really matter that much anymore, the moment they saw Molly and Bob riding on Bastion (in tank mode)’s back, six presents sitting around them as the others seemed to block shots and fire at one another, Molly squealing for Bastion to go “FASTAH! GO FASTAH, PLEASE!” as the wrinkles on Bobs’ face flapped behind them, they collapsed back into laughter.

The two of them finally calming down when they realized that they were surrounded by everyone else who were giving them concerned looks.

“What are you two laughin’ ‘bout?” Molly asked.

“Lots of little things.” Angela snickered as she and her teammate stood, brushing themselves off a bit before acknowledging their prediciment.

“We have a negoat…” Molly paused, “Negota… no…”

“Ne.” Ana began.

“Ne.” Molly repeated.

“Go.”

“Go.”

“Ti.”

“Ti”

“A”

“A”

“Tion.”

“Tion.”

“Nego.Ti.A.Tion.” Ana sounded it out for her.

“Nego.Ti.A.Tion. Negotiation!” Molly said cheerfully, pleased that she was able to say it now.

Mako motioned for her to begin the discussion of terms, which she did.

“Okay, th’ deal is, we take th’ present, no one gets shot ‘n then we all have lunch!” she said cheerfully.

Angela and Mako looked at one another, pretending to take their time with the decision to cave to her demands.

They were outnumbered, two against twenty two (including Bob). They were out gunned, and Angela knew she was quite peckish at that moment. Mako’s stomach growled, and he finally gave his counter offer, “Only if Molly ‘n Bob get ta ride Bastion to th’ mess hall again.”

Molly smiled and gave him a hug as she cried, “DEAL!”

Bastion made some beeping noises and Orisa informed them that he only agreed to carry them for the last round.

“Yeah, but th’ faster you get ‘er ta th’ mess hall, th’ faster she can give out ‘er little party favors.” He replied.

“Wait, what party favors?” Hana asked, “I didn’t have anything like that set up.” She then glared around the room, “Did any of you…?” she growled, only for Mako to explain that, “Molly found little souvenirs fer everyone when she was on th’ beach. She was really excited ta give ‘um out when we got back, wanted ta surproise everyone, but…”

“You all surprised her first.” Angela finished for him.

Molly smiled up at Bastion, “Da’ helped me poick yer’s out foirst, Bastion! I think you’ll really loike it!”

The world’s last Bastion unit seemed to take this information in before letting out a beep that Zenyatta translated as, “He says he will take one for the team.” And Hana called out for him to “Transform and Roll out!” making the older ones chuckle a bit while Molly gave him a hug before he transformed into tank form and Winston helped her and Bob up onto the tank’s back before it charged forward, Molly letting out a squeal of delight as they flew forward, Bob letting out an excited bark before his face began flapping again, making all of them crack up as they made their way to the mess hall as she called out, once again, “FASTAH! PLEASE!”


	40. The gifts tha' keep on givin'!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Molly opens her presents, has cake and ice cream, birthday wishes, everyone gets icing beards and Rat gets a wish of his granted too.

After they all went back to the Mess Hall and Athena declared Molly’s team victorious, the others began piling food on their plates and eating lunch while Molly went around passing out her ‘Party Favors’ she had picked up from the beach earlier that morning. Bastion had gotten his first, as he had carried her there despite not really wanting to and Molly feeling that it was only fair to start with him. (Rat didn’t really agree, but it wasn’t his call)

The one she had specially picked out for him was a fairly large, spiky orange one, which she picked out for him because, “It looks loike a explosion!”

Daw, she was just the sweetest little thing!

Rat gently rubbed his thumb against it as she finished passing the little presents from the sea around to the others before going to gather her own lunch from the table of snacks, trying all sorts of things (passing a few things for Bob to enjoy too) and just looking really happy.

He suddenly recalled a party he had as a child, the memory was faint, blurry, the scent of frosting was strong and he heard muddled voices singing what sounded like the happy birthday song before the memory slipped away as quickly as it appeared, vanishing back into the deep abyss where his memories often fled to. He blinked a few times after the memory flashed in his head and found Satya holding two cups of iced tea and looking down at him, concerned, “Are you alright, Junkrat?”

“Yeah, ‘m foine.” He said, giving her a broad smile as she sat down beside him and handed him a cup, him thanking her with a soft ‘Ta.’

“How is your stomach?” She asked.

“Old Angel Wings gave me a once over after we started th’ game, ‘m apples.” He assured her. Her golden eyes stayed locked onto his for a moment before she let out a sigh of relief, “That’s good to hear, I was quite concerned when I saw the red mark.”

He nearly reminded her that he’d been through worse, but instead, he nodded and took a sip from the cup she had brought him and soaked in the fact that she had worried about him.

It made him feel pretty good if he was being honest. Knowing that she cared about him like that.

“Alright!” Pipsqueak cried as she clapped her hands and held up a bowl, “It’s time for presents! To make things more interesting, the birthday girl will pull a name from the bowl and then open the present from that person and do it over and over again until she opens all of them.” She looked at Hog, “Don’t worry, Roadhog, your name isn’t in here since you already gave Molly her presents.”

Roadie gave her a thumbs up before Hana gave the bowl a big shake and held it out for Molly to pick out a name.

First (or he guessed second if you wanted to be technical about it) was Mercy, who got her a stuffed toy firefly with a butt that actually lit up, Molly hugging her before she even knew that it lit up, and happily pressing the spot on the toy to turn the little light on and off for a minute or two, giggling each time it glowed before reaching into the bowl for the next one.

The next one was Ana, who got her a proper coat and scarf, saying that they hadn’t gotten it when they went out clothes shopping and she felt that she should have one just in case, Molly putting the coat and wrapping the scarf around Bob’s neck and running around the room with him, getting about three laps around everyone before starting to overheat and being told to take it off and that they could wear it again later before giving her a big glass of cool apple juice and then letting her open her next present.

McCree got her a cowboy hat (figures) and a massive pack of what looked like spray paint, only for him to reveal that it was something called ‘silly string’ telling them how he, Pharah, Genji, Lena, Winston and Mercy used to run around base playing with them, taking off the top and gently pressing the button on the top, releasing a bright yellow string onto her arm, making her let out a squeak, “It’s cold ‘n wet!” she cried before putting on the hat he gave her, grabbed another can and cried out, “IT’S HOIGH NOOOOOOON!!” and squirted a bright pink string onto him, the group laughing as they had a overly dramatic back and forth, chasing each other around the room, diving and leaping over furniture and doing wacky, over the top moves to shoot each other with the brightly colored gunk before they both exhausted their cans, gave each other determined looks before McCree declared it a draw, for now.

Mei had gotten her a sled, saying that she planned to teach her the fun of snow soon and that she’d need it. Bob grabbed the rope in front of it and began pulling it around the room, the small Chinese woman laughing and saying, “That certainly is one way to play with it!” Her little bot making it snow a bit on the mutt’s head, Bob snapping at the snowflakes in an attempt to eat them while Molly pulled the next name.

Morrison’s present was a bit… well, surprising. Molly unwrapped the package and pulled out two water pistols, a holster for them and a bottle of Tabasco sauce, the old soldier explaining how while the toys were meant for water, but could also be used for Tabasco sauce, indicating the bottle and explaining how it contained a spicy fluid that burned flesh on contact. “Just in case.” He’d said.

Rat hadn’t been expecting that from him, to be honest. But then again, what exactly did he expect him to get her for her birthday?

… Yeah, he had no idea. Old 76 was kind of an enigma to him when he wasn’t being a nag, a soldier or an old man watching sports on TV.

The next box Molly opened held a t-shirt from Pharah saying, “My Dad will ALWAYS beat your Dad” on the front and the word “**ALWAYS**.” On the back. The group chuckled as Molly immediately tried to throw it on over her clothes, getting it stuck on the cowboy hat that she was still wearing and running around in a small circle trying to tug the shirt over the hat. The lot of them biting back snickers as she asked aloud why she couldn’t get it on before her Dadhog lifted the shirt up, took off the hat, helped her put the shirt on, revealing that it was practically a dress on her, and then put the hat back on. After processing how he’d done it she finally gave Pharah a big hug and thanked her.

With Satya’s presents, Molly eagerly put the ghungrus on her ankles and jumped up and down, giggling at the sound of the jingling bells. The walkie talkies, however, took her a bit to figure out. Pressing the buttons and making sounds before she started pressing the button and shaking her legs to make the jingling sounds heard from the other walkie talkie, but having a hard time hearing it. She had been stretching into strange poses to try to hear the jingling, only for Hana to grab one of them and walk to the other side of the room, Molly jingled the ghungrus.

“You have to press the button, then jingle.” Hana told her through the walkie, making her jump a bit. Molly followed the instructions and bounced happily on her toes when Hana smiled and gave her a thumbs up before skipping back and explaining that these were kind of like cell phones, only these only needed batteries, they didn’t need to charge or need a signal to work and that they were great for emergencies or little secret missions.

His present was next, and thankfully, she had been overwhelmed with glee as she pulled out the sketchbook and then happily began pulling out all the little pieces from the large, brightly colored gift bag Hana had gotten for him the night before (since he forgot), admiring the colors of the paints, markers, pens, crayons and pencils, the softness of the brushes as they tickled her skin, stared curiously at the glue and tape, and admired the sparkly bug stickers. As soon as she was sure she pulled everything out, she practically rammed into him for a hug, murmuring a ‘thank you, Uncle Jamie’ so only he could hear. He smiled and hugged her back, “Any toime, love.” He murmured back. He let go after what probably had been a few seconds and motioned for her to keep opening her presents.

Torb’s wife had apparently sent Molly a present as well and Torb had wrapped them in the same box. The old engineer got her a tazer, telling her how to use it and to only use it in emergencies. His wife, however, had sent over homemade mittens that looked like little cat faces. Molly had put them on and used them like little hand puppets, meowing at Bob, who barked back, almost having a little conversation for a few minutes before Bob looked back at the bowl and motioned for her to pick the next one.

Molly strugged to pick a new name from the bowl, pouting that the kitten mittens made it harder to pick up a slip of paper. Lúcio picked one for her and handed it to her, getting a ‘Ta’ before she read off Winston’s name.

Winston’s present had been far smaller than the rest of theirs, and after a few minutes of trying to get the paper off first with her mittened fingers and then with her teeth, they convinced her to take off the mittens so she could open her presents. After a pout and a quiet removal of the mittens, she was finally able to rid the box underneath of the colorful paper, her eyes widened as Rat caught sight of something shiny in the small box before she pulled out a little bracelet that consisted of many round, shiny, silver-colored and somewhat textured beads.

“I did more research on the data from your stick.” The ape announced, “Apparently they had nearly finalized a formula that could negate your powers.”

“Formula?” Molly repeated, “Loike a potion?”

Potion?

The fuck?

Hog looked to Pipsqueak, “Stop teachin’ my kid weird things.”

“I taught her that first.” Ana informed him.

Hog looked her right in the eye and said, “You too, then.”

Making all of them chuckle as Winston explained that, “The formula consisted mainly of metals, but you are right, formulas are often thought of as liquid mixtures. My apologies for the confusion.” He said with a finger pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

“So this will stop me from readin’ moinds ‘n stuff?” Molly asked, holding up the bracelet.

“That was the goal.” He said, “Considering that there will be occasions where you’ll be in crowds in the future, I decided that making something that would allow you to not hear the thoughts of everyone around you might keep you from feeling overwhelmed. Mei suggested I make it into a little accessory for you so it wouldn’t seem out of place.” He smiled at her, “Would you like to test it?”

“Yeah!” she said.

“Alright, I’ll think of a number between zero and ten…”

“Poie ain’ a number.” She replied immediately.

“Pi.” He corrected, “P-I. Not P-I-E. P-I is 3.141592653…” he began before Molly said, “Decimals don’ make it fair.”

“Ah, that is true, it would make it harder for you to guess and we haven’t really gotten to pi in your math lessons yet. I hadn’t thought about that, sorry…” The Silverbacked Scientist said thoughtfully as he stroked his chin.

Silence soaked into the room for a moment before Molly said, “Th’ letter ‘I’ ain’ a number eithah.”

“I equals the square root of -1…” He stated.

“You said th’ numbers would be ‘tween zero ‘n ten!” She complained, puffing out her cheeks a bit in frustration.

“I’ll think of one.” Mei volunteered, walking over to them and saying, “It will be a positive non-decimal number between one and ten.”

“It’s sad that she had to classify that.” McCree mumbled to Pharah, Lena swatting at him with a scowl as Molly revealed that the number she was thinking of was, “Three.”

“Correct!” she declared.

Molly put the bracelet on, looked at Mei and said, “Eight.”

Mei gave her a wide eyed look, “Did you…?”

“Nah, I can’ hear what yer thinkin’, I jus’ guessed you’d pick eoight since it’s me eoighth birthday.” The littlest Junker explained, then pointed to Zenyatta who was floating behind Mei, “Also I can see Lúcio’s reflection holdin’ up eoight foingers behoind me.”

Rat looked over at Brazilian DJ, who quickly hid his hands behind his back.

“Molls’s got yer numbah, mate!” he teased with a laugh.

“’N it’s eoight!” Molly declared before walking over to Winston and giving him a hug, “Thank you Winston! Now my head won’ hurt in crowds!”

“You’ve been in a crowd before?” He asked her.

“Yeah, they’d get a bunch of people to do ‘psychological tests’ ‘n stuff us inta fancy clothes ‘n plop us in a room with ‘um ta see what happened.” She told them.

“’N?” Hog asked.

“It was really noisy.” She told them, “So many voices in me head, I couldn’ hear meself think. After a whoile me head started ta really hurt, then I bloinked ‘n I was attached ta machines ‘n they were talkin’ ‘bout how they didn’ expect me ta pass out.”

Rat didn’t need to make eye contact with anyone in the room to know for sure that they felt the same as he did, but he looked at his best mate anyway and confirmed a similar bloodlust in his eyes that he felt bubbling in his own gut.

He wondered how many R.I.P tires it would take to completely destroy any trace that Hyde ever existed…

“But it’s okay! I got back at ‘um!” she declared proudly, “Th’ second toime they tried it, I faked passin’ out ‘n escaped fer a bit!”

“You did?” Hog asked, watching his little ankle biter nodding cheerfully, “Yeah! I ran ‘round fer a while, playin’ around in all th’ different rooms, , pressed all th’ buttons in th’ loift, ‘n then went ta th’ cafeteria where th’ noice ladies gave me food!” Her stomach growled loudly.

“Speakin’ of food!” Lena teased as she held out her plate. Molly helped herself to a few dumplings and stuffed them into her face before pulling out the next name and the mood quickly brightened as Molly pulled out Lena’s name.

Lena and Emily had picked out a couple hundred piece puppy puzzle and a special pair of goggles for her, “it can be used fer swimmin’, flyin’ or ridin’ ‘round in your Dad’s bike!” she said cheerfully as Molly tried to figure out exactly where they were supposed to go. After a few minutes, Lena showed her how to put it on and explained that she could wear it around her neck when she didn’t need it.

The goggles hung around her neck as she pulled out the next name, Zenyatta.

Rat felt himself begin to fidget more as the metal monk held out a his (nicely wrapped, not that he’d ever admit that he thought so) present for the child, the little girl happily unwrapping the gift as the omnic explained that, “While the yoga mat has served you well during our sessions, I think this will be far more comfortable when you come out of your meditative state and fall on your hindquarters.” Molly pulled a brightly colored cushion from the paper and placed it onto the ground before positioning herself near it before letting herself plop down on top of it.

She smiled and did it once more, just to be sure, before giving him a hug, he had to hold back a wince at that, but luckily Satya noticed and gave him a gentle pat on on his flesh hand, sending his thoughts spinning for a moment, before moving on to the next present from…

Orisa.

Another bot? Give him a break!

He bit back a bitter mutter, knowing that he needed to suck it up, Satya gently taking his flesh hand in hers, his face feeling like it was on fire again and sending a tingling sensation all over as the green and yellow bot reveal that the present was from her and her creator Efi, who said that she was excited to meet her and was looking forward to Halloween.

Okay, he had to admit, that was actually pretty sweet, but he wouldn’t admit it out loud as Molly happily unwrapped her very own pachimari. She gave the bot a hug and asked her to pass her thanks along to Efi too before opening the next present.

Brigitte had made her a shield similar to her’s and Reinhardt’s, only instead of a lion’s face, like on their sheilds, it was a boar face. He chuckled as he heard McCree murmur to Genji, “Gee, wonder why that’s on her shield?” before the two ex-Blackwatch members began to crack up.

Of course, after unwrapping it, everyone decided to help her test it by having her run around with them shooting foam darts at her, the little suction cups sticking on the glowing blue of the shield until she deactivated it and resumed picking names and opening presents.

Lúcio’s present needed explaining and a little teaching and a quick removal of the cowboy hat before she could work it right, but she was very pleased when she got the music player to work. She also seemed to like the first song that played on it (her cowlicks resembling music notes as she happily bobbed her head with the beat) before the DJ suggested she pick out the next name for her next present, that she could listen to the songs later and that she could come to him any time to put more onto it. She gave him a hug and put the headphones he gave her around the band of the cowboy hat before putting it back on and pulling out the next name.

Zarya’s present was one that even Rat was eager to give a burl, a big toy gun that shot out tennis balls. Zarya explaining that it was a toy that both Molly and Bob could play with together. Molly glanced at Rat, silently asking him for something he immediately knew without even needing to be asked. He picked Bob up from his spot near the sled and lifted him up to give Zarya doggie kisses as Molly gave her a hug before giving it a try, both of the tiny creatures seeming to enjoy themselves for two shots before Molly went to pick the next name. Bob taking it upon himself to pull the sled to Zarya’s feet and climbing up her legs a bit, his eyes wide as if to ask if he could come up.

Zarya happily lifted the mutt into her arms and plopped him into her lap, the wrinkly pup’s tail wagging wildly as she seemed to massage his furry hide.

Reinhardt’s presents were very sweet, a few old, but obviously well taken care of books and a few new board games, “I enjoyed these a lot as a child,” Reinhardt explained, “I thought you might enjoy these as well…” but before he could finish his sentence, Molly had already rammed into his stomach, her tiny arms out as if she could wrap her arms around his massive frame, “Thank you, Reinhardt!” She said excitedly, her feet flailing about as if she was trying to bounce on her toes in mid air, “Can you show me how ta play?”

He smiled and gently ruffled her hair, “Of course! I can teach you after you open all of your presents, how does that sound?”

“Okay!” she said, giving him one last squeeze before he carefully placed her back down on the ground and seemed to hold back tears of joy as Torb and Morrison both placed hands on his massive shoulders and Ana sat beside him and began gently patting his hand, murmuring soft words he couldn’t hear all that well, but it seemed to be ones of understanding.

The next present was from… Bastion.

He felt his guts start to twist.

While he wasn’t comfortable with any of the bots, nor did he really _like_ any of them, Bastion was the one that he and Hog often felt that they needed to be defensive around… Because everyone got mad when they went straight to the understandable offensive and they learned that it was just easier to be on the defensive whenever it was too close to them or Molly. It didn’t help that, out of all of the bots here (except for Mei’s tiny little thing that either of them could crush or blow in less than a second) that it couldn’t speak, at least with the other two, they _could_ communicate with them when they _had _to, but they couldn’t understand what the Bastion unit was saying. Also it really didn’t help that, unlike the other two bots, that both he and Hog’d had bad experiences with Bastion units back during the crisis…

He fought back a memory of a male voice calling his old childhood nickname, a child’s scream, the rattling sound of bullets firing, the scent of metal, the taste of blood…

He swallowed the memory back, feeling it slid back into the abyss as the happy party returned to him.

That thing was dangerous.

_ Especially_ around kids.

And, yeah, yeah, he and Hog had been fine with Molly and Bob riding on it earlier, but that was different… Mainly because it was funny and it didn’t like being ridden…

Okay, those were the _only _reasons they’d been fine with it. Watching Molly happily open an unknown package from a Bastion unit that had actually killed people before was not something they were okay with and he noticed that Zarya and Torb were a bit stiff as she happily tore at the paper. The child not feeling the slightest bit of caution or fear as she opened a thin, white box.

Rat watched out of the corner of his eye as McCree and the Shimadas slowly slid towards his trembling best mate, just in case they needed to tackle him to the ground.

Yeah, good luck with that, drongos.

And even then, there would be nothing stopping him from doing it for him.

Rat felt Satya’s hand grip his own tightly, as if silently assuring him that it would be okay.

…Okay, that stopped him… Wait, had she been holding his hand the whole time?

** _YES!!!!_ **

He gave her hand a gentle squeeze as he nervously watched Molly pull a strange plant out of the box, her expression curious.

“Ah, _Platycodon grandiflorus_!” Winston said cheerfully, “A wonderful choice, Bastion.”

Bastion whistled back to him, Orisa translating his thanks while Molly voiced what the rest of them were thinking.

“Plat-e-code-on? Grand-e-Floor-us?” Molly tried, “Th’ heck is tha’?”

“It’s a Balloon flower,” Winston explained, “The buds grow like a balloon would and they make a popping sound when they finally blossom.” He gently rested a massive dark finger under one of the round buds, “I used to watch these with some of the other young primates back on the station. It was always exciting when they finally popped. My mentor used to have a large amount of them growing around his office, sometimes he’d cut some for us to bring to our mothers after they popped…”

Molly glanced at the massive bot, and Rat was surprised when he watched it nod at her, like they were having a silent conversation.

Rat recalled Molly saying that she couldn’t hear Genji or the bots’ thoughts at Ana’s party, were her powers getting stronger or did she just get to know the old bot more than he or Hog would like?

“Winston, would it be okay if we kept th’ flower in yer lab?” She asked him as she held the plant up to him, “Bastion ‘n me wanna learn more, ‘n I bet Orisa would loike ta know too ‘n me door ain’ very big, so it’ll be hard fer them ta come in ‘n see it…”

Winston paused, then smiled and gently ruffled her hair, “Of course. I’ve also wanted to know what you’ve collected on your little outings off base, perhaps you can bring the things you collected by and we’ll have a lesson on them as well.”

“Okay!” she said excitedly, carefully placing it on a table with the presents she wasn’t wearing at the moment (with the exception of the sled, which was still by Zarya’s feet) before reaching back into the bowl.

It was finally Pipsqueak’s time.

Molly tore off the paper, opened up the box and pulled out the phone, “Wow!” She said as the pro-gamer told her that she made sure everyone else’s phones were programmed into it and showed that the background on the phone was of a happy Bob. The two then took a picture together before they sent it to Hana’s phone and she motioned for her to open her last two presents, while she uploaded the photo to her social media accounts. Rat managing to read the words, “First Birthday Party is going great!” from his spot before turning back to Molly as she reached into the bowl.

The last two presents were from the Shimada brothers and she pulled Hanzo’s name before pulling out Genji’s and put them next to each other before reaching for the package Hanzo had wrapped.

Molly opened it and pulled out a comb then scowled and looked at Hanzo, “Pharah’s lyin’, me hair ain’ tha’ bad!” she shouted, “’N neithah are me teeth!”

“I didn’t do anything!” Pharah blurted, holding her hands out in surrender.

Hanzo chuckled as he motioned towards the comb, “That is a hair accessory, my mother enjoyed collecting these and I thought you’d like one too.”

Molly looked down at it before looking back up at him, “So it’s not ta comb ma hair?”

“Well, you can use it for that as well, if you’d like.” He explained as he motioned to his lap, “Here, why don’t I put that in your hair while you unwrap the rest of your present?”

“’Kay.” She said as she walked over to him, box still in hand as she carefully placed it beside him and he lifted her up into his lap. Molly then rummaged through the box while Hanzo placed her hat where the box had been and began gathering her uneven blonde locks into what looked like a ponytail and began twisting it, leaving her cowlicks out due to their inability to be kept down or contained.

“I gotta sword!” Molly cried as she lifted a sheathed blade from the box, her eyes glittering as she admired the fancy handle and sheathe, Hanzo held the twisted locks into a bun shape and placed the comb into it. The older ninja bro smiled proudly at his work as some of the women in the room gave him the same look Rat recognized as the one they’d have before he and Torb would often get for giving her something or teaching her something dangerous.

Uh oh…

He needed to change the topic, and fast!

“Oi, where’d ya learn ta do tha’?” He asked, hoping he didn’t sound too nervous.

“When our Mother became sick, Genji and I would take turns caring for her, she would like it when we’d do her hair, even though we did horrible jobs of it at first. We both had to watch a few ‘how to’ videos and even practiced on each other for a bit before we got better.” He explained as Molly carefully pulled the sheathe off of the sword, her eyes sparkling with awe as Rat noticed the female eyes in the room narrow, “I can see it!” she said, bouncing a bit in his lap, “I can see th’ comb in me hair! It’s pretty!”

Rat watched as the solemn ninja bro actually cracked a warm smile at that, “I am glad that you like it.” He chuckled. He then seemed to pick up on how the guys were now all smirking at him knowingly and how the girls were still glaring at him. He cleared his throat, “Anyway, Genji and I will show you how to use it later, so for now, let’s keep it in it’s sheathe. It’s quite sharp and I wouldn’t want you to get hurt.”

“Roight.” She agreed, then asked him if he could help her line the blade back in without missing and the two got the sword back into the sheathe and put it on the table before opening Genji’s present.

It was a pair of tennis shoes.

Genji walked over and gently tapped the bottom of one of the tennis shoes, a neon green light from the bottoms of the shoes flashed. Molly let out a happy squeal as she took her combat boots off and put the shoes on and began bouncing on her toes, giggling as her shoes lit up. Genji stood next to her, glowing green and started jumping with her, laughing. It wasn’t long before the two would jump in the air at the same time and cry out, “Matching!”

Junkrat couldn’t keep the laughter in if he tried. Watching her wearing the over sized shirt, the bracelet, the bells, the comb, the goggles, the shoes, she just looked so _hilarious_!!!

And he wasn’t the only one, most of them were laughing while Pipsqueak was filming the whole thing on her phone. Roadie finally got up from his spot and murmured something to her, the tiny asian woman replied with simply a smile and a thumbs up as she continued filming before he plopped down beside them.

“What did you ask her?” Satya asked, making it one of the few things she’d said since they’d sat down.

“Told ‘er not ta loive stream it. Ape got pissed at tha’ toime with Molly’s drawin’ of us, it could’ve got us inta trouble with th’ UN. Luckily she pulled it ‘n edited it ‘fore anyone put two ‘n two togetha, but Child Services could’ve seen it.” he told them.

Rat felt his blood turn to ice in his veins. If those blokes in Child Services found out that ‘Makoto Buta’ was actually Mako ‘Roadhog’ Rutledge, shite would get pear shaped quick.

“If I recall, Molly has already admitted to the world that she is a Junker.” Satya said, “For all anyone knows, Makoto Buta and Roadhog could still be two different people. Roadhog could be her biological father and Makoto Buta could be her temporary legal guardian.”

“Maybe.” Hog snorted, doubtful.

And as much as he didn’t want to agree with his friend about this, he couldn’t lie and say he was wrong. They were Junkers, they kept what was important close. Defended it with life and limb.

No way any Junker would just leave their kid alone by themselves unless they carked it or were too fucked up to take care of them right in the first place. And Rat could speak from first hand knowledge;

Mako ‘Roadhog’ Rutledge is a good caretaker, bodyguard and friend.

If Molly was biologically his or if she had popped out of Cheshire in his home, there would be no way he’d ever had left her behind or let her anywhere out of his sight. Hell, he’d only gotten her a few months back and he would destroy any and all who even so much as _thought_ of harming her. (The shitty suit who broke her nose was an unfortunate exception, but hey, accidents can happen. Maybe if they’re ever in India or something, his car may spontaneously combust with him inside. Or he might slip and fall into an open man hole and break his legs… among other things.)

“It’ll be ‘roight, mate.” He said with a light jab to his shoulder, “’Sides, you see how she’s gotten bettah with foightin’? ‘N ‘er powers are startin’ ta get more developed. ‘N now she’s got _tha’_ haul? Even if we can’ stop ‘um from takin’ ‘er, she _can_.”

“She is _your_ daughter.” Satya agreed, earning herself a gentle squeeze of his hand.

He could see the smile on his friend’s face through the crinkled eyes behind the goggles of his mask as he replied with a soft, “Yeah,” as he watched Molly bounce beside Genji some more.

Ana clapped her hands, ending the little game between the littlest Junker and the cyborg and reminding her that she had asked Reinhardt to teach her how to play her new games. Molly had quickly put her new hat back on and walked over to the boxes and began asking about them, trying to figure out which one would allow the most amount of people to play.

They all ended up playing all of them, childish, colorful games that brought up a few more memories from Rat’s abyss, it wasn’t as much as the last two, just laughing. And not the kind that was aimed at him. No, this was something he’d done with others, like he was doing now as he took his turn and rolled the dice.

It turns out the Shimadas and Amaris were awful at board games. Meanwhile, Satya, Hana, Mercy and Mei dominated the boards until they were at their mini board game championship and…

Bob ruined it by plopping his empty food bowl onto the middle of the board, scattering the pieces, cards and dice and making it impossible to know who won, his expression saying, ‘you all can play more later, we eat now.’

To be fair, he was getting hungry himself and no one really got too mad at him about it. In fact, the four women seemed to look forward to a rematch as the adults began working on dinner and Hog and Molly went outside to let Bob out to use the bathroom before filling up his food and water bowl and Molly rubbed his furry, floppy head as he chowed down and received lots of doggie kisses in exchange when he was done.

It didn’t take long for the food to get onto the barbeque, but it did take a while to make Morrison stand down in his blue ‘Raise the Steaks’ apron. Reinhardt and Torb understood why the two Junkers wanted to take over the barbie, Molly hadn’t had Aussie style barbeque yet (too busy taking care of her or going on missions or other things) and they wanted to let her enjoy it on her birthday. Those two busied themselves with sides and drinks. But Old 76 needed Hog, Rat, McCree, Ana, Reinhardt, Torb, Genji, Mercy, Lena, Winston and Pharah to make him back away from the barbie. He did take the finished food to the table, though, which they were fine with as long as it kept him out of their way.

Roadhog took charge and Rat didn’t fight him on it, it was his little sheila’s birthday and the bloody hell he’d get between the big guy and his daughter’s smile. He did goof around and lighten the mood in the kitchen, making the Grumpy old soldier even crack a grin (which he plans to never let him live down, by the way).

Everyone ate with fervor, but he knew his best mate was beaming as Molly inhaled as much food as she could, her eyes glistening and her face covered in sauce. He also knew that he was actually quite pleased with himself that she was eating it so much and so fast when Ana and Mercy told her to slow down or she’d make herself sick, but he still told her to slow down and savor her food anyway, wanting to be a good Dadhog.

He even caught a tear of joy in the big guy’s eye when Molly whined, “But I can’ help it! It’s so yummy!”

Morrison, however, made her actually stop for a second by saying, “Slow down, soldier, you want to save room for cake and ice cream, don’t you?”

Molly stiffened, obviously torn between wanting to stuff her face in her Dadhog’s specially made birthday barbeque and wanting to stuff her face with specially made birthday cake and the limited edition ice cream Hana had bought after teasing her about it for a week (something Pipsqueak told him yesterday when he caught her putting a few cartons of it into the freezer).

“We can have the leftovers for lunch tomorrow.” Mercy said soothingly.

“And I do believe Hana put a layer of Strawberry jam in the cake.” Satya offered.

Molly started to drool a bit at the suggestion of cake filled with jam, but looked to Hog anyways, silently asking what she should do.

His mountainous partner in crime let out a gut-jiggling chuckle and gently wiped the leftover sauce off of her face, to her dismay as she let out a frustrated cry, “I can make you some more whenever ya want, you can slow down ‘n save room fer cake ‘n ioce cream.” He told her.

“’Kay!” she said cheerfully, anger at the sauce removal gone as she finished the little left on her plate and began bouncing in her seat, waiting for dessert.

It wasn’t long before they pulled out the fancy cake, the tubs of ice cream and sang happy birthday, violet orbs widening at the massive cake as they put sparkler candles on it (which he insisted on the moment he learned they existed).

“Now blow out the candles and make a wish!” Mei said cheerfully.

Molly paused, frowning, “A wish?”

“Yeah, Luv!” Lena said, “If ya don’t blow out all the candles, it won’t come true!”

“What’s a wish though?” she asked.

The room took a moment to soak that in before Orisa cheerfully piped up.

“Oh! I know what that is! It’s when you really want something or really want something to happen!” The bot said cheerfully, seemingly pleased that she was able to help.

“Tha’s all it is?” she asked. The others nodded as she sat with a thoughtful pout on her face, her candles still sparkling before she finally asked, “Does it have ta be about me?” Rat felt his guts warm at her words.

“It’s your wish, it can be for whatever or for whomever you want.” Genji assured her.

“But I only got one, roight?” she asked, sounding worried, “I-I don’ want no one ta be left out…”

“Who says anyone hasta be?” Torb asked, “Jus’ keep the wish simple ‘n you can make it work fer as many people as you want. Works fer me.”

She seemed to soak this in for a moment, then smiled and closed her eyes, “I wish fer everyone ‘ere, me siblings ‘n me Mum to have th’ same amount of happiness tha’ I’ve gotten since comin’ ‘ere.” She then opened her eyes and blew out the candles, Rat not really paying much attention as his eyes started to burn.

And it wasn’t because of gasoline, or pepper spray or his eyebrows being on fire… Again.

No, these were from tears.

He was touched that she would use her birthday wish on everyone else, him included. He didn’t have to be a mind reader to know she probably had specific things in mind for a couple of them when she said ‘happiness’.

Like, Lena getting to spend more time with Emily. Or Torb getting more time to see his wife. Lúcio and Pipsqueak finally sacking up and going out on an actual date or something.

He knew that Reinhardt and Ana finally going out on that date was definitely somewhere in there, since Molly had asked him about earlier while they were playing. Reinhardt said that they all planned to eat together and didn’t want him and Ana to miss out on the fun for tonight, so Molly told him that he’d have to take her out sometime in the next week then instead.

Then there were the ones he could practically hear her thinking, loud and clear;

Roadhog and Mercy.

Him and Satya.

He crossed his fingers under the table, silently praying to whatever would bother listening to please let the little ankle biter’s wish come true.

His prayers were answered with loud cries of, “MOLLY, LUV, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”

“OMG, WHAT IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW?!”

“H-how is she doin’ that?”

“MOLLY!”

He snapped back into focus, his flesh hand at his eyes as if to rub them to make sure he was seeing clearly and not wiping any forming tears.

What he saw made him rub his eyes for real once he got a good look.

Molly’s bracelet was next to her plate and she was holding up a large floating blob of water, her face panicked as she carefully held the blob over the candles and lowered it to the dying sparks and cried, “YOU SAID TH’ CANDLES NEED TA BE OUT FER MA WISH TA COME TRUE!!”

The blob put out the candles and rose back up into the air, Molly looking quite proud of herself as the water blob got bigger.

“Um, Molly…” Lúcio called.

“Can someone please turn off th’ sinks? Th’ water’s gettin’ heavy…” she said, her cheerful expression slowly melting into a strained one.

Pharah hauled ass into the kitchen and Satya began weaving containers into existence and motioning for Molly to empty the floating blob into them.

Molly filled about three two liter containers before there was no more water floating in the air.

Pharah walked back into the room, her face all but saying ‘should have known’, “She wasn’t lying when she asked to turn off the _sinks_.” Rat paused, thoughtful, there were three sinks in the kitchen, one in the island, one near the prep areas, and the last one by the dishwasher. To turn all of them on, she would need to move the step stool to each sink and turn them on…

Wait, how the fuck long had he been out of it? He wondered as Hana began cutting the cake and Mei started dishing out the ice cream, watching as the Shimadas busied themselves by passing out the cake and ice cream, making sure Molly got the first and a very big slice of cake and a huge scoop of ice cream.

She could have used her powers to sped up the process, Rat considered as Hanzo handed him his slice, after all she _did_ take off the bracelet…

“So… is anyone gonna talk about how she had a blob of water floatin’ in th’ air or…?” McCree asked as Genji handed him a plate.

“She did it earlier today, so we ain’ surprised.” Hog said, motioning to him and Mercy.

“It was a smaller amount of water, though.” She informed them, “I have a picture of it.” She then walked across the room and pulled her camera out of her bag and brought it back to the group, Satya flicking a tablet into existence and handing to Mercy as she returned, “Athena can access it faster this way so everyone can see.” She said simply.

Mercy thanked her and pulled a small chip from the camera and put it into the tablet and watched as the photos loaded up on it, “Athena?” She called.

“Uploading now.” The AI replied, several screens appearing around the table.

Rat’s eyes quickly scanned the pictures, Sunrise on the beach, Molly struggling to walk on the sand with her Dadhog helping her, Molly happily jumping in the shallow water, Molly holding a much smaller blob of golden water above her… then there was something that made him stop half bite, “Is tha’ th’ base?” he asked as he pointed to a completed sand castle that Molly sat next to with a proud smile on her face.

“Y’ah!” Molly cried with a mouthful of cake, pointing her fork at the photo, “I did tha’!”

“You did this?” Winston asked as he began cycling through photos of the very detailed sand castle before looking at the eight year old, both amazed and slightly horrified, “Molly, this is an exact replica of this base.”

She smiled vividly and swallowed her bite, “Yeah! I worked really hard on it!” she blurted, then frowned a bit, “But th’ ocean broke it…”

There was a held in collective sigh of relief before an idea hit him, “Oi, Molls, you think you can do somethin’ loike what ya did ‘ere,” he indicated the sand castle, “with th’ base with th’ places you were in at Hyde?”

“But I didn’ see th’ whole thing.” She said before shoving another giant forkful of cake into her mouth.

“Tha’s foine, jus’ everythin’ you can remembah. You can make it floor by floor.” He said, “If ya do tha’…”

“We may be able to narrow down the buildings her brothers and sisters could be in!” Satya exclaimed, her golden eyes sparkling at him, “That is _genius_!”

Rat felt as if he was on fire again at the compliment while Winston continued to spin through the photos of the sand castle base.

“It would certainly narrow it down.” Winston agreed, obviously pleased with the idea as well as completely oblivious to the blushing Junker who’d had it. “And not just the building itself,” he motioned to a nearby window, “Before we found her, Molly had never seen the sky or any kind of landscape, so I doubt there were any windows or anything like that on the levels she was on. So the lab she was in most likely was underground. Knowing how deep the building went underground and the structures in it may help us narrow down locations this lab could be.” He guessed.

“We can set a few tables aside in th’ workshop for her ta build each floor.” Torb said, “Let Symmetra draw out the plans for each floor and see what we get from Molly’s memories.”

“’N if I do tha’, we can get them out of there?” Molly asked.

“Yup.” Roadhog said as he gently ruffled her hair, “It’ll get us one step closer ta yer wish comin’ true.”

She beamed excitedly before looking a bit sheepish and gently pushed her ice cream around on her plate, “Would it be okay if I start tomorrow? I know I should start now, but…”

“We’d need to rearrange the tables, among other things in the workshop, so it’s probably best that you start tomorrow.” Brigitte said, helping herself to a bite of cake.

With that matter settled, Molly resumed happily eating her cake and ice cream and smiling when Mei put down a small cup of ‘dog ice cream’ (frozen chicken stock) for Bob.

After enjoying another slice of cake and another scoop of ice cream, Molly (who put on her new scarf) and McCree had their rematch, Hana filming it as they started out like something from an old western film (something that he’d watched with some of the guys when the girls went out on their girl’s nights) and then just ran around like crazy people, shooting silly string around until it hit Hana. Then the two quickly realized that they were now in serious danger and legged it away from her, Lúcio taking over filming as they ran from her until they managed to hide behind Hog, who simply pulled the silly string off of her and said, “Yer foine.”

After that, they all started cleaning up the left over food, silly string and paper from the presents, only for Rat to realize that there were several containers filled with frosting in the fridge while he was about to load it up with leftovers.

“Oi, Pipsqueak, what’s with all th’ frostin’?” he asked, holding up a container or bright orange frosting up to explain which frosting he meant.

“Oh, I couldn’t decide which color I should frost it. So I made a bunch in different colors, why?” She asked.

“Hmmm…” He hummed as he walked towards the mess hall and called out, “OI, MOLLS, YA WANNA MAKE FROSTIN’ BEARDS?!”

“DO I!!!” She cried back, putting her new toys back down and ran towards the kitchen and Rat opened the container and handed it to her before gathering the rest of the frosting from the fridge, shoving the leftovers inside and plopping Molly on the island while Hana and Lena quickly surrounded her with the frosting containers and she began covering his face in the stuff.

When it was time for Molly’s bath, a good portion of the gang were sporting frosting facial hair and cleaning up the mess they made in the kitchen. Even Satya had a blue frosting mustache, which he had no idea how they managed to convince her to get but he was glad she had joined in on the fun anyways.

His yellow/orange beard was styled after Reinhardt’s beard, however, instead of looking like a lion, like Reinhardt’s beard made him look, Molly somehow made it look as if he had a flaming beard.

And he was fine with that.

He still had to wash whatever he couldn’t eat off… After all of them took so many pictures of their frosting covered faces that he was pretty sure that they could stuff a book with them.

He had been on his way to his room to clean up a bit when he spotted a majority of the others (bots not included, as they had cleaned their frosting facials off in the kitchen and had no reason to come to the dorms anyways) peaking towards the girl’s side.

He leaned out to see what was going on with the rest of them and was surprised to see a hard light walkie talkie in Hana’s hand before looking over to see Hog standing by Molly’s room, a bag over his arm with a few of her presents poking out of it, most likely holding Molly and Bob as well. And beside him was Mercy, who he could hear laughing as if she was right next to them.

That little scamp! She was probably holding one of the walkie talkies and holding down the button so they could all hear too!

… Note to Rat from Rat: remember to praise her for this, because this is brilliant.

“It’s bettah that way.” He heard his best mate say from the walkie (which was on a low enough setting so the two down the hall wouldn’t hear) “Easier ta scrub it off.”

“It would seem that you still ending up missing a spot,” Mercy chuckled, her finger scooping up a bit of the icing off of his chest, “She did a good job outlining it, I’ll bet Torb was disappointed that she ran out of icing before she could finish making it like his.”

The blacksmith mumbled about how it would take more than a good outline made of frosting to capture the same kind of majesty his beard had but stopped dead as they all watched her _help herself to the icing she wiped off his chest, turned pink and quickly wish the two Junkers and Bob a good night before fleeing into her room_!

They all stood there, slack jawed in shock, surprise, and more than just a little amusement.

Molly summed it up best when she asked, “Did tha’ jus’ happen?”

“… Yeah.” The mountainous Junker squawked like he’d never squawked before.

“… Am I still gettin’ a bed toime story or do you need to go ta th’ bathroom ta check yourself fer more frostin’?” Molly asked him, her Dadhog’s ears turning red enough for all of them to see from their spot at the unintentional innuendo as they struggled to keep back chuckles and snickers at his expense.

“I might check in yer bathroom jus’ ta be sure.” He said, “Reinhardt took good care of these books, only fair we do th’ same. Don’ think it’d be roight ta get frostin’ all over ‘um.”

“Agreed.” She replied as they heard the door open and the walkie talkie finally went silent.

The group stood there for a moment before McCree announced that those who had bet that Mercy would make the first move would get their cash the next day, that he needed time to process what just happened before he could properly dole out the cash.

Rat couldn’t blame him, and neither could anyone else as the others drifted to their rooms, leaving only him and Hana behind.

Hana looked up to the ceiling, “Please tell me you filmed all of that.” She pleaded.

“I have.” Athena said, “Would you like me to send it to your phone?”

“Yes!” She blurted.

“Oi,” he said playfully, “Manners.”

“Please.” She added, flipping him off before finally noticing that, unlike most of them who had mostly washed their frosting facial hair off, he hadn’t even bothered, “You still have that on?” she laughed.

“What? I loike it.” He carefully rested his flesh fingers under his chin, as if trying to show off, feeling a bit of the sugary mess on his fingers as he asked, “Why? Not workin’ for me?”

Hana laughed even more as she blurted that, “Your face looks like an explosion!”

“Ta!” he said cheerfully, making her laugh harder before she seemed to notice something, give him a broad grin and wish him a good night before scarpering.

“What was tha’ all ‘bout?” He asked aloud.

“Junkrat?” a silky voice called.

He turned around and smiled, but before he could even say a word, she blurted, “You _still_ have frosting _all over_ your face!?!”

“’N ‘ere I thought I looked good with a beard.” He pouted playfully before she tugged him to follow her to her room where she took a spare washcloth and weaved a stool into being and ordered for him to “Sit here” while she quickly removed her bracelets and began lathering the washcloth in her sink.

She carefully scraped a line of frosting off of his face, “Honestly, Jamie.” She huffed.

“Foine, foine, I won’ get a beard.” He joked, “But can I at least try fer a mustache?” he asked, wiggling his eyebrows at her.

She smiled at him as she washed off the chunks of frosting from the wash cloth in the sink and scraped off another line off his cheek, “I think I prefer you clean shaven.”

“Eh, prob’ly fer th’ best,” he relented, “catch on foire ‘nough tha’ they prob’ly wouldn’ last.”

That got a laugh out of her as she gently twisted the wash cloth over the sink, “I’d think after that incident where Torbjörn nearly caught his beard on fire, you would’ve known the risks already!” she teased.

“Says th’ sheila who wears heels inta combat!” He teased back, “Don’ know how you can run in those things in th’ places we end up!”

“I wonder the same thing about your peg.” She replied coolly as she rinsed more colorful chunks off of the wash cloth, twisted it, then rinsed it again to wipe off any lingering sugar on his face.

“In case of me peg, I jus’ try ta avoid gettin’ stuck in holes.” He said as he held it up to her, “You have no idea how annoyin’ it is fer Roadie ta yank me arse out of some hole I get stuck in…”

She laughed a little harder as she continued to clean his face, the two going back and forth, making each other laugh until she left for a moment to grab another clean wash cloth and give him one last rinse to make sure he was completely clean.

She then gently held his face and moved her own close to his, giving him one last once over to make sure he was completely clean. He felt his cheeks burn at how much she was staring at him.

“There.” She said, looking quite pleased with herself as she motioned for him to see for himself. He got up from his seat and saw that she had completely cleaned his face of all frosting and anything else that might have gotten on there today.

“Ta,” He laughed, “What do I owe ya for the shave?”

But she didn’t laugh with him, she was too busy staring at him.

“Uh, Sat?” He called, confused and a little embarrassed by all the attention.

“Molly’s birthday wish.” She said softly, “I-I get the feeling that when she said ‘happiness’ that she didn’t mean the same thing for everyone, right?”

He froze.

Was she… please, please, please, please, PLEASE let her be leading up to what he hoped she was leading up to!!!!

“WeLl, yeah.” He said, wincing a bit at his own little squeak there, “Different strokes fer different blokes ‘n all tha’.”

She nodded, her cheeks flushed, “I-I have been thinking about something I had talked with Molly and Angela about before… While you all were out picking up Emily.” She looked at him, determination bright in her Golden eyes, “Vishkar can be a bit... _overbearing_ when it comes to relationships.”

Overbearing.

Not the word he’d use, but hey, if this was going where he hoped, who cared.

Junkrat simply motioned for her to go on, which she did.

“Angela and Molly pointed some things out to me, one of which being that, what Vishkar _doesn’t _know won’t hurt anyone. And that…” Satya sucked in a breath, “And that if I was interested in pursuing a relationship with someone they wouldn’t approve of, that perhaps it would be best to simply not inform Vishkar and see where the relationship goes.”

“’N?” he asked, feeling a bit breathless here.

“I-I think that I deserve to decide for myself who I will date.” She said.

“Got a bloke in moind?” He breathed, feeling lightheaded, for the love of all that was holy in her culture would she please stop beating around the bush and tell him he has a bloody chance already?!

She smiled shyly at him, “I might, but would he want to have a secret relationship with me?”

“What koinda dumb question is tha’?” he asked before scooping her up so she was sitting on the edge of her sink, making her let out a squeal of, “Jamie!” that made his heart race and giving her a gentle kiss that she happily returned.

He couldn’t speak for anyone else, but so far, Molly’s wish had come true for him.


	41. Cheshire chapter: Deals and bitter memories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A sheila in purple has been followin' Cheshire for days. What's 'er fuckin' deal?

Cheshire scowled from the top of a sleezy motel, while she was pleased that her work slaughtering pervs and pedophiles had made the streets around here safer, it made the cops make more rounds and meant that she was stuck up here for a while.

Ugh, she was hungry, annoyed and she was in no mood for a chase tonight with the person creeping around on the rooftop with her.

Some sheila in purple had been following her around for a while now. A week? Maybe two? Hard to say without seeing the date, and the last date she saw was the fourth of August. It had been fun at first, almost like a game, but now she was tired of running around and wanted answer. And those answers were soon coming, after all her years of fighting and sneaking around, she could easily tell that the ankle biter was three to four meters behind her. Should she stick around and find out what the hell the woman’s deal was or kill her?

Hmmm… maybe hear the girl out? She inspected her weapon. Originally it was a few blades attached to a pair of old brass knuckles. In the fight before the Omnium, they were severely damaged by a clawed bot. She beat it, but her weapon was too damaged to use anymore. She ended up asking one of the other members to help her tear the bot’s claws off and quickly pulled all the other stuff off, leaving the blades and the mechanisms that retracted and released them, placing them on her arms, strapping them to make sure they stayed there, quickly figured out how to make the blades pop out and got back into the fight. It hadn’t taken very long, during her time fighting rogue bots during the Crisis, she’d learned how to pick a machine apart quickly and that skill definitely came in handy then. Over the years, she’d fiddled with it to make it easier for her to use and made it her own, a small bit of pride swelling in her chest at the magnificent weapon-slash trophy on her arms.

The stranger’s costume wasn’t anything any local gang member would be caught dead wearing. She would know, she’d killed a few of them for being a little too handsy with some teenagers and less for getting too rough with younger children.

She’d never heard the girl speak, but she obviously wasn’t from here.

A hired gun from somewhere else who was cocksure they could take on a Junker?

Maybe. Wouldn’t be the first one. They were all pretty easy to take out, thinking that she was just some violent idiot. Ha, drongos.

But she could be asking for her help, while it wasn’t common, she’d helped a few very battered men and women keep their violent exes away after being begged for help.

Fuck it. There was only one way to find out…

“Ya should really pick up yer feet more when ya walk.” She called, not bothering to turn around for a moment before hearing hissed out words in a language she couldn’t understand, but the tone was enough for her to know that the kid was swearing. She chuckled a bit before finally turning around, “So why have you been followin’ me? I doubt ya wanna have a sleepover ‘n do each other’s hair ‘n nails.”

She looked at her, surprised for a moment before smiling, “Straight to the point. I like that.” She then motioned to her, “I have an offer for you that I think you might like.”

Cheshire laughed, her fingers fiddling near the trigger that released her metal claws, “Ya know, th’ last bastards who offered me a deal fucked me over big toime…”

‘In more ways than one’, she thought, her hand hovering over her abdomen for a moment out of unconscious habit. Over the scar that those fuckers had left behind… “’N I’d rather not have a repeat of tha’.”

“You aren’t even going to stick around to hear what’s in it for you?” The girl asked impishly.

Cheshire suddenly had flashes back to that day. The offer. The promise of a better life. Of a family. Of a child. Of never being alone again.

All lies.

Lies.

Lies.

LIES.

** _ LIES!! _ **

She pulled the trigger on the claws and lunged at the woman, stabbing through the gun she tried to raise in her own defense and knocked her to the ground with a swift kick to her heeled feet (who in their right mind would wear these when they would be following someone like her around?) and had her on the ground with a blade to her throat, shaking with rage at the memory of waking up, her core aching as she pulled herself so she was on her knees, her hands on her aching midsection and feeling half dried blood on her, rough stitches oozing blood.

Being alone, bloody and aching in the radiated wilds of the Outback.

“Wow.” The girl said, pulling her back to the present, “Hyde Global really messed you up.”

At the mention of that bloody hellhole, she pressed the claws closer to the purple sheila’s throat as she growled, “**_you don’ even know th’ half of it_**.”

“Can I make a guess?” the girl asked nervously, her hands up in surrender.

She pressed harder onto the girl’s throat, blood starting to well up from the tip of the blades, “If ya think ya got toime.”

The young woman’s eyes widened in panic, her fingertips lighting up and a floating purple octagon appeared in midair about two feet away.

Cheshire’s eyes widened and she slowly moved the blades away from the girl’s throat, slowly moving towards the octagon to get a better look at it, the video playing out in front of her, the words spoken in it making her hands tremble as she gently cupped it in her hands.

On the octagon was Mako ‘Mac’ ‘Roadhog’ Rutledge with a happy little girl sitting in the palm of his hand, “I can’ blame ya fer not knowin’… She looks jus’ loike ‘er Mum… She’s got ‘er hair, ‘er face ‘n ‘er eyes…”

Her eyes. Her eyes were the same shade as her own…

Could… could that little girl be…?

“He’s right about her looking just like you.” The girl said as she sat up, flicking a few more octagons into being, showing more videos featuring the little girl on Mac’s lap, playing, laughing, eating...

“I-is she…?” she breathed, her throat going thick with emotion.

“Her name is Molly, and yes, she’s yours.” The girl informed her, “Hyde tried to sell her to us as a weapon called M011, but luckily Roadhog, Junkrat and their pals at Overwatch got her first.”

Cheshire’s head was spinning with the new information, her emotions going from glee of actually having a child and seeing an old fantasy she’d had so many years ago as a reality, (named after her baby sister to boot) to unbridaled rage at the fact that not only had those bastards kept her daughter from her for all these years **_but they had sold her as a bloody weapon?!!?_**

Wait a fucking second here. This girl said they had tried to buy a weapon from Hyde that turned out to be hers, but she said ‘luckily’ Mac and those Overwatch blokes had gotten to her first.

So who was she and who did she work for here?

And whose side was she actually on?

Well, only one way to find out.

“… Tha’ offer…” she said.

The girl smiled broadly, “Simple. You want payback on Hyde Global. So do we. You want to know more about what they were up to. So do we. You…”

“Want ya ta get ta yer point.” Cheshire said flatly, “Who do ya work fer ‘n what exactly you want?”

“I work for Talon…” she began, only for Cheshire cut her off with a firm, “_Fuck off_. I ain’ workin’ fer bastards who’d put more people through th’ same shoite we went through all those years ago!” she stopped as the facts soaked into her mind.

Talon had tried to buy her daughter. To be used as a weapon. But a weapon for what? And again, why had this kid said that it was a good thing that her daughter had been picked up by Mac (not that she disagreed with her there) and Overwatch when she worked for their greatest enemies?

“You lot tried ta buy me daughter.” She growled.

“No!” The girl said, holding up her hands, frightened, “I would _never_! I didn’t even know that the weapon Moira went on about was a kid until I saw her!”

“Moira?” Cheshire repeated. Another memory surfacing as her stomach started to twist.

“Miss… uh, Cheshire, this is Dr. Moira O’Deorain, she’s our Head of Genetics for this project.” A man who’s face was fuzzy in her memory said as he indicated a tall woman with short, red hair and mismatched eyes.

“It’s a pleasure.” The woman said, holding out her hand to shake, Cheshire had smiled broadly and accepted it with a cheerful, “Th’ pleasure’s all moine!”

The woman’s laugh had been light but in hindsight, it almost sounded mocking now as the Doctor said, “I must say, I’m looking forward to seeing the potential Junker genetics have for future generations and I’m very pleased you accepted our offer.”

“You kiddin’?” She had said, “I’ve always wanted a kid of me own ‘n Junkertown ain’ exactly th’ safest place fer a pregnant sheila… Or a baby… or anyone, really. Bein’ offered a chance ta have a family again _‘n_ ta give th’ kid a safe place ta live ‘ere ‘n a good job ta boot? I’d have ta be a drongo ta turn yer offer down!”

The woman’s smile was almost predatory as she took a small blood sample and told her how they’d ‘procede’.

She’d been such a fucking fool…

“Yeah. Moira.” The girl said, “You okay?”

“Moira. As in th’ doctor with two eye colors ‘n red hair?” she asked, her whole body shaking.

The girl took in her body language and her tone, concerned before looking her right in the eye.

“You met her back then. When you were…”

“Fuckin’ dumb ‘nough ta believe tha’ anyone would really ever give a Junker loike me a chance at any koind of happiness?” She snapped, eyes stinging with tears depite her best efforts, “A wally ta believe tha’ anyone would want to help me become a Mum? Ta care enough ta even stitch me up propah after they nabbed what they wanted? Tha’… tha’…” She finally wiped at her face with her arm, frustrated, hurt, angry and just so tired of feeling like this. She just wanted to feel like she did before they cut her open.

Before the scar.

Not that she felt all that great then, but it was paradise to how she’d felt since that day.

She wished Mac was here so she would at least feel like she had a place to go, like there was still one person who gave a shite about her. She even started feeling a bit better as she recalled how he’d be so careful when patching her up whenever she’d drop by and asking her softly in that deep voice of his what kind of death wish she’d had now. He’d always give her food, even if it was his last bit of it. He’d always let her stay as long as she liked, no matter how much she would bug and tease him. And he’d always hovered worriedly by the doorways when she would break down and cry and he’d always cover her with a blanket when he thought she had cried herself to sleep, carefully tucking her in…

But now she didn’t even have that anymore! The stupid fucking ‘Queen’ of Junkertown banished him and Junkrat and she’d gotten pissed off and got herself banished too!

Only, unlike those two, she didn’t even know where she could go for a better life, or where to even start.

The young woman stared at her, her expression startled and her eyes wide in comprehension before she murmured, “What the hell did they do to you?”

Cheshire felt a bitter snort escape her as she lifted her raggedy tank top and undid the top button of her shorts, revealing the horrible, ugly, haunting scar she’d gotten for trusting Hyde Global all those years ago, “they said they were concerned ‘bout th’ bots gettin’ more violent over th’ past couple of years. Said tha’ they wanted ta see if they could find a way ta breed soldiers ta stop any koind of possibility of a second omnic crisis. Said tha’ as a member of th’ AFL, as someone whose survived all this toime against bots ‘n radation ‘n all th’ other shoite Junkers have ta deal with, tha’ they thought I could have a kid tha’ could change th’ world, tha’ could save loives. Promised ta give me a job, a real one, good pay ‘n benefits ‘n proper education fer me kid ‘n everything if I joined th’ program.”

The next barking laugh that escaped her thickening throat was more bitter than the last, “’N I was dumb ‘nough ta believe ‘um. Dumb ‘nough ta let ‘um poke ‘n prod me. Ta go under without any koind of insurance tha’ they’d keep their word.” She tearfully ran a finger along the scar, “I woke up back in th’ bloody Outback with a shoitty loine of stitches ‘n a bloody abdomen! When I finally managed ta get a real doctor ta look at me…” She opened her mouth, but her voice just couldn’t form the words that had been shattering what was left of her heart into even tinier, and even more bitter pieces for years now;

She was sterile.

Because she had so foolishly believed the sugar coated lies of Hyde Global’s scientists, that they would give her the family she had yearned for since the day she failed her baby sister…

She felt hot tears fall down her face as she stood there, shaking and miserable and lonely. She was so lonely it hurt. It hurt so badly. She hated being alone. She always had. But she had always been too defensive for her own good, not that her family’s ways of letting people walk all over was all that much better, but at least they were always surrounded by people. She had always been alone without them (well, them and Mac).

The girl looked at her for a moment, pulling herself up to her feet, concerned and horrified by the scar, before slowly walking over to her, step by cautious step. Cheshire too overcome by emotion to care. It wasn’t as if even in her sobbing state she couldn’t slaughter someone, she’d done it before and done it just as well as she did dry eyed. If this stranger was about to attack her, she would take care of it like any other dumbass who tried.

To her shock, the young woman gave her a hug, shaking a bit as she did so, “My offer is this,” she said, “I’ll help you take down Hyde and let the world know what they did to you and try to help you reconnect with Roadhog, Junkrat and Molly. In exchange, you’ll be my bodyguard and help me gather data on any and all who get in our way. You only work for me. Not Talon. How’s that?”

It took a moment for Cheshire to process that before sniffling that, “As noice as tha’ sounds, ya do know tha’ I’ve got tons of Wristies poilin’ up bounties on me head, roight?”

“Wristies?” The girl repeated, pulling away a bit, confused.

Cheshire held up her hand as if she was holding a glass and then shook it like she was using a shake weight. The girl let out a snort before laughing so hard she struggled to stand, leaning against the Junker, who found herself joining her after a moment or two. After a few moments of laughter, they calmed down a bit and the girl said, “Oh, I know exactly who is after you, and trust me, when we’re done with them, they’ll be following our every whim.” She purred impishly.

Cheshire wiped at stale tears and rebuttoned her pants before giving her a broad smile that Mac used to call her ‘up ta some shoite’ smile and holding out her hand, “Foine by me, what’s yer name?”

“Sombra.” She said, shaking it, “I think this going to be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”


	42. Honey

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hog hurts his hand and Mercy uses an all natural remedy that ends up making him and Bob squirm.

Molly’s little Hyde building project had been completed within a week and a half, much to Symmetra’s glee as she began taking in the complete nine floors Molly could recall and the other six partial floors and working on possible structures and places where it would be likely to be while checking Vishkar’s data on the few buildings they had made for them as well as the information on their other buildings that they’d been given at the start of their projects. Rat helping her figure out the best points of possible entry would be for a rescue mission… among other things.

He chuckled as he recalled Symmetra passing him last week with pink cheeks and a bashful, ‘excuse me’ as she dashed past, Hog still being able to see her lipstick was smudged a bit in the corner and her clothes were a bit wrinkled as she flew by.

Both things were not normal with her, but he had a pretty good feeling based off of something Hana told him the day after Molly’s birthday party.

And, sure enough, Rat had a hanky to his dazed, happy face, smudges the same color as her lipstick all over it and still a little on his face, “Tha’ sheila knows how ta pash...” He giggled giddily before he made him finish cleaning up and joining him in the rec room for some pool, Rat telling him all about his new secret-to-mostly-Vishkar relationship. Luckily Molly was busy finishing up her last statue for Lúcio’s music video at the time, so she saw nothing like that, but she was happy for them all the same. “Part of me wish came true!” she told them happily.

After that, she seemed to restlessly explore the base with Bob. Doing her best to play with all her toys old and new and her new games and pay attention during her lessons, but she seemed to be a bit out of it. The only thing she could really focus on was helping Pipsqueak with the Halloween costumes. And even then it was only for a short while.

Roadhog decided that maybe he should have that long overdue tea party with Ana to ask if she might know why she was acting like this, hoping it was just because she was excited for the Halloween party and was having a hard time paying attention due to how excited she was.

“She’s probably just excited for Halloween.” Ana confirmed, “think about it, it will be the first time she’s been able to spend time with other children since she left Hyde, and they didn’t exactly allow anything close to a play date over there. So she’s probably really looking forward to it.”

“Hmmm…” he hummed, a bad feeling bubbling up in his gut as he stared at the oversized tea cup in his hands, “She gonna be okay?” he asked, hoping she would simply say yes and let this bad feeling go away.

“You mean, will she be okay when she doesn’t know much about how to socialize with other children?” she asked him. He nodded and she smiled and gently placed her hand on his and gave it a gentle pat, “Molly is a smart little girl, and even if she wasn’t, Efi, Torb’s son Oscar and his older grandchildren have a basic understanding of her situation and they’ll probably help keep the littler ones in line and will help her out with anything that might come up. Oscar apparently has been a bit upset that his little nieces and nephews don’t want to learn from him anymore, so he’ll be estatic to have a new, eager young pupil.”

“Good ta know.” He said, feeling relieved that they’d look out for her socially. Because while he could look out for her in many ways, but it’d be hard for her to make friends with him hovering around the corner…

“Now, about what happened with the frosting…” She purred, making him choke on his tea for a moment.

That moment had popped into his brain so many times in the past two weeks. After it happened, he did his best to make sure he had no more icing on him (because he told his daughter he would) and even pinched himself to make sure that this was, in fact, real life, before he did his best to pay attention while Molly read to him before she started showing the usual signs of exhaustion. Then he tucked her and Bob in as usual, turned out the lights and made his way to his room.

Once inside, he had a mini happy freak out about how that actually happened like a teenager might have. Then laid in his bed going from fantasing to wondering what he was going to do around her now and back. He hadn’t really been able to go to see about his lungs since then, not that Angela reminded him about it either, just as bashful and nervous around him as he was around her at the moment, although they both did their best to not let it show so the others didn’t know.

The only thing that comforted him was that whatever had happened that night was between him, her, Molly and Bob. So he had time to think about it without dealing with everyone teasing him…

And now it turns out that Ana had seen it too.

He didn’t even have a chance to bother asking how she knew, because Ana revealed it after he finished coughing that, “Didn’t you find it odd that Molly only had one walkie talkie when you took her and her presents to bed?”

He briefly recalled Molly holding a walkie talkie after she showered, but he also recalled him putting both walkie talkies into the bag with the rest of her presents…

Then he remembered how he’d left his bag in there and never saw if the other one was in there after… _that_.

“Who had th’ other?” He groaned, a little embarrassed that they’d been seen.

“Hana. But nearly everyone saw it and Fareeha actually seems to be somewhat accepting of it.” Ana said.

… Well, that explained all the knowing looks from the other guys and why some of the girls would giggle at him the next day and why Pharah had glared at him before stomping off somewhere.

“… Which part of me does she plan ta…”

“Your right foot, a great restraint all things considered.” She said before taking a sip.

“Huh, would’ve thought she would’ve gone for me throat if not me family jewels.” He said, somewhat impressed while also a little annoyed that she spyed on them in the first place. If she didn’t like the idea of them being together then how about not spying on them when they were seemingly alone?!

“Yes, she’s improving.” She smiled.

“You must be so proud.” He teased, making her laugh.

“What I am more proud of was the fact that Junkrat apparently advised her to talk to Zenyatta about it despite his prejudice. Not that he seemed to_ like_ doing so, but talking about this with Zenyatta seems to be helping her immensely.” She smiled warmly, “It’s nice to know that so many people here are looking out for my little Fareeha and care for her so much that they’d overlook their own prejudices.” She looked him right in the eye and added, “Not that I can’t understand why you see them that way. The Australian Government handled that whole situation horribly.”

He was more than just a bit surprised at all this information she had, but at the same time, if anyone here could be a mind reader other than his daughter, it would be Ana Amari.

“It was more than jus’ a ‘little’.” He grumbled.

“Ah, I nearly forgot, you were in the AFL, with Molly’s mother right?” she asked.

“Yeah. Me ‘n Ches were real close back then.” he said simply, having a bad feeling that the elder Amari might want to talk about just _how_ close he and Cheshire had been. It had been bad enough talking to Angela about that, he honestly wasn’t sure he wanted anyone else to know about that.

“Did Winston tell you that the Australian Government’s been asking why we’d like a sample of Cheshire’s DNA?” She asked him instead, much to his relief.

“No. Figured they’d do somethin’ loike tha’, with ‘er record.” He said.

“Did he tell you how they reacted when he told them that we believed we found her daughter?” She asked, her tone light but somewhat frigid.

“Prob’ly don’ believe it or don’ wanna believe it.” He said flatly, thinking that was the reason for her tone.

“No,” she said, her face finally falling into a furious scowl, “they actually had the _nerve_ to ask that, if we confirmed that Molly was her child, that we bring her there to use her as _bait_.”

“They **_WHAT_**?!” He roared. His teacup practically disintegrating into tiny shattered ceramic pieces, dust and mildly hot tea in his massive hand. But Ana didn’t even flinch, instead, she seemed supportive of his reaction and gave him a sly smile as she informed him that, “Winston had to keep Angela from sending that message to child services immediately and told them we would do no such thing,” Her smile broaded as she told him that, “Because we believe _you_ to be her biological father and if you and Junkrat were to get word that your little girl was in the Australian Government’s clutches, and then find out that they were going to use her as _bait_, well…” Her smile grew bigger as she took a sip of her tea, letting the silence hang in the air to allow Hog to think of all the things he and Rat could and would do if such a thing were to happen.

“There wouldn’ be nothin’ left of Oz by th’ toime we were done with it.” He finally informed her.

“Our point exactly.” She purred, “They didn’t have yours or Junkrat’s DNA on hand, apparently they lost all samples they had in an _explosion, _so they are unable to help us make sure…”

Ah, the Australian Government criminal records building, he and Rat’d had such a ripper of a time there…

“...but they still had Cheshire’s.” her eyes darkened a bit, “Apparently she’s killed some people from dangerous families for trying to harm children as of late and many people from high places have been demanding the government for any and all information on her, including any family members she may have. They haven’t given any information on her out, as many of those investigations are still underway, but they did warn us that those people may find out about Molly and may come after her as well.”

“But if it gets out tha’ she moight be moine too,” he said, the information she gave him before keeping his stomach from twisting until he threw up, “It’ll make ‘um think twice ‘bout it.”

“_Exactly_. Cheshire is only a danger in Australia, but you and Junkrat are a danger everywhere and anywhere you feel like going.” Ana replied, pleased that he picked up on it so quickly, “It saves us from having more people coming after her. After all, we have our hands full from our usual duties and dealing with Talon and Hyde coming after her.”

“We have a loist of any of those other ‘interested parties’?” He asked her.

“Perhaps, but I was told not to give you or Junkrat a list. Angela was told the same thing.” Ana informed him as she brushed a long, stray silver hair from her face and he felt her handing him a small piece of paper under the table. He carefully took it and held it tightly between his fingers before slipping it into one of his many pockets.

“Of course ya would.” He groaned, smiling for a moment behind his mask, pleased that she was kind enough to give him the information anyway before asking, “Can ya tell me how bad it could be a’ least?”

Her face sank into a concerned frown, “Cheshire has made enemies of drug cartel leaders, mafia empires, human trafficking organizations, cults, dictators, and even a few high standing organizations.”

“Loike?”

“Well, there is a rumor that a few Hyde higher ups have lost several family members as of late.” She said.

“They took famliy from ‘er foirst.” He reminded her.

“You know that, I know that, we know that. The Australian Government does not.”

“Drongos.” He murmured, Ana nodded solemnly in agreement but reminded him that, “Those people probably knew nothing of what the company did to her, nor do they know what they probably did to countless other women. While what Hyde did to them was unfair, it’s just as bad to harm the innocent for something they did not do.”

“If you went through what Ches has, would you really care anymore as long as ya caused the people who hurt you pain?” He asked her.

Ana put her cup down and held her index fingers under her chin as she leaned back in her seat, “Possibly.” She admitted, “Depending on how much I knew. If I knew nothing more than what they had done to me and was angry and hurt enough and alone without anyone to help me or comfort me, I might do what she has done.”

A flash of fierce determination crossed her eye, “But then again, I am _not_ Cheshire.”

“No.” He said, “But if you weren’ able ta have Pharah or have all th’ mates ya do, you wouldn’ be th’ same person ya are now. You’d prob’ly be someone more loike ‘er.”

“That is true.” She conceded thoughtfully, “But I honestly would rather not think of how my life might have turned out if I did not have Fareeha or have my friends here.” She told him as she returned to her original postion on her seat and brought her cup back up towards her face, “But then again, how can one even imagine life without their most important things in the world?” she posed.

Hog paused, trying to think of how life here would be without Molly or Rat and frowned as he found himself not even wanting to consider such a thing. He’d never had a problem thinking about life going forward without someone back in Junkertown. Hell, he’d thought plenty about how much easier his life would be without Rat while they were travelling (in the beginning at least).

But now even trying to think of such a thing was as unbearable with his current family as it had been when he was a kid, sitting under a tree in his mother’s backyard, reading a book and rubbing his sweet little Hailey’s belly as his mom came out of their house to give him a ice cold glass of fruit juice because it was so hot that day and she didn’t want him to pass out from the heat.

“… Ana, moind if I ask a favor?” He found himself saying despite his throat going thick from the memory of the two lovely ladies from his past. The old sniper smiled and motioned for him to speak.

“If ya see Ches anywhere, can ya let me know?” He asked softly, “We can’ picture our loives without our daughters, but Ches’s been loivin’ with th’ thought tha’ she can never have one fer a couple years now…” he stared at the bits of his broken cup in his massive palm, tiny cuts and bits of ceramic embedded in his rough skin, “’N I promised Molly I’d introduce ‘er to ‘er Mum if it was safe ‘n well…” He looked up at her, “Ya always say tha’ ‘Mother knows best’, figure you’d know better than anyone if it’s safe…”

Ana smiled warmly at him and gently patted his hand, “Oh, I am, but you should ask Ingrid to keep an eye out too, when she gets here. She’s got good eyes on her as well, she will probably be invaluable in that aspect.”

“Oh yeah, been meanin’ ta ask, but what’s she loike?” He said, “Can’ get much out of Torb, any toime one of us asks, ‘e jus’ goes all bashful ‘n blustered. ‘N Brigitte’s a bit toight lipped about ‘er.”

“Ah, Ingrid is a wonderful, warm woman. Great cook, but she was an even better therapist.”

“Therapy?” He repeated, surprised.

“Yes, she specialized in physical therapy for amputees, she also helped people get used to their prosthetics. She worked for Overwatch until she became pregnant with her first child, they sent them to Sweden to see her after that. Ingrid even helped Torbjörn design his own prosthetics after he lost his arm and eye in Operation White Dome.” She took a little sip before chuckling, “Then again, since Torbjörn had promised Reinhardt he could name Brigitte if he stopped talking, she needed something to work on to keep from unleashing her wrath upon on him.”

“Worked out though.” Hog pointed out.

“Yes, she liked the name, luckily for them. She did make him promise not to let someone name Oscar or their grandkids after that, though.”

Hog laughed and Ana then told him all about Torb’s other children and what she knew about his grandchildren, complaining how it must be nice to have grandchildren when Pharah opened the door and they both broke down into tears of laughter when the thirty something shouted, “MOTHER!!” with crimson cheeks before quickly fleeing.

He felt much better after talking with Ana and the two walked out into the living room to see… Molly with a bright yellow towel on her head (her cowlicks pushing the top of it a bit higher) happily shouting, “BLUE!” near the doorway, facing to the left of where Genji and Hanzo were as they stood in the doorway, looking surprised. Bob was nearby, lounging on the floor about four feet from her.

“What…” Hanzo began, confused.

“Did I scare ya?!” she asked excitedly, hopping and turning to still face the wrong direction as she tried to figure out where they were.

“Why would you want to scare us?” Genji asked, feigning hurt.

“McCree says Halloween is a toime ta be scary, so ‘m practicin’!” she said cheerfully, the towel riding up a bit as she rose her arms into the air. “Look! ‘M even dressed up loike a scary ghost loike Lena told me!” she paused, “Only Mei said tha’ th’ sheets ‘n pillow cases in th’ dryer weren’ done yet…” She perked back up as she told them that, “But I found this in th’ Man-Manchest-ah closet on th’ third floor! ‘N yellow is close ‘nough ta white, roight?”

Hanzo gave her a flat expression and looked as if he was about to say ‘No’, but Genji quietly slapped his hand on his brother’s mouth, “Yeah!” he said, his brother scowling at him for a moment before pulling his hand off of his face, “Normally people cut holes so they can see.”

The towel lowered and tilted to the side a bit, “Morrison told me not ta cut th’ towel, though…”

“Well, if Morrison told you not to, then there’s nothing you can do!” Genji said, “But you should say ‘Boo’ and not ‘Blue’. Trust me, ‘Boo’ is scarier.”

“Okay!” She said cheerfully, then paused for a moment.

“Can I try again then?” she whispered.

The two brothers gave her small, amused smiles before Genji told her sure and they walked backwards away from the doorway, Molly bouncing a bit on her toes.

They opened the door again and this time Molly cried out, “BOOB!”

Hog barely managed to contain a snort of laughter while Ana let out a soft chuckle before they quickly slapped a hand to their faces to hold in the giggles.

Meanwhile, Genji fell to the floor laughing as Hanzo just looked at his brother and the chipper child bouncing on her toes, still facing the wrong way.

“Did I do it roight this toime?” she asked.

“No.” He said sternly before removing the towel, getting a cry of, “Oi!” as she reached for it and then turned around in a circle for a moment to try and find whoever took her towel, only to see Hog and Ana.

“Boob?” She tried, holding up her arms as if still trying to be a scary ghost.

Ana laughed heartly this time before gently ruffling her hair, “There’s no need to be scary this year, your father will be going with you and he knows a thing or two about being scary.”

Molly seemed taken aback by this for a moment, her arms lowering to her sides as she looked from her to Hog and back a few times, “Da’s not scary.” she said, confused as to why Ana would even say that.

Genji was still laughing on the ground, leaving the other three adults in the room to stare at her.

“You do not think Roadhog is scary.” Hanzo said, amazed.

“Nope.” She replied, popping the p.

“Not even a little bit?” He asked.

“Nuh uh.” She said.

“Not even when he’s angry?” Ana asked.

“He don’ really get mad at me.” She shrugged.

Hanzo and Ana looked at Hog, who simply said, “Don’ havta get mad. She listens.” Molly nodded in agreement, looking quite pleased with herself.

The two paused, then nodded in understanding before Ana pointed out that, “She’s never really seen him on the battlefield…”

“He did nearly kill that Sanjay fellow.” Hanzo recalled, “Not that he didn’t deserve it.”

“He did it _defending_ her.” Ana reminded him, “And she was too busy holding her bloody nose and lip to really pay much attention to what he was doing.”

Molly looked at him, “Don’ listen to ‘um, Da’.” She hugged his leg, “You ain’ scary.”

He smiled and knelt and gently ruffled her hair with his good hand, “I don’ moind bein’ scary sometoimes. Bein’ scary has kept me safe fer years.”

“Tha’ sounds lonely.” Molly murmured, nuzzling deeper into his leg.

“It was.” He admitted, “But yer Mum would stop by ‘n Rat loived with me fer a bit. So I wasn’ alone all th’ toime, ‘n I ain’ alone now, ‘m I?”

Molly smiled up at him, the first adult tooth starting to reach the same size of the rest of her teeth and the second one starting to come in as well, a tiny bit crooked. Her cowlicks curled tight to her head as she said, “Nope!”

He made a small mental note to talk to Ana and Angela about taking her to the dentist before whispering in her ear, “If you wanna know the real secret to being scary. It’s lookin’ at someone ‘n decidin’ tha’ you ain’ gonna budge without a foight.”

“’N it works?” She whispered back.

“Works fer me. Works for Rat. Worked fer yer Mum, still moight, haven’ seen ‘er foight in a while.” Hog said with a smile as Genji finally started to calm down.

“So it’s a Junker thing?” She asked, a bit excited at the thought of a secret Junker technique.

“Yeah.” He said, “It’s a Junker thing.”

Genji finally let out the last chuckle before saying, “I needed that,” He then looked at the little girl and said, “Sensei wanted me to tell you that the outdoor meditation is canceled today due to the weather, so we’ll be doing it in the rec room today.”

Hog looked out a nearby window and was surprised to see it was raining outside. Huh, when had that happened?

“Ah, okay.” She said, then paused, “Wait, why didn’ Athena tell me tha’?”

“Winston’s giving her something sort of like a check up today.” Genji explained, “It doesn’t happen very often, but when it does, we kind of give her a break.”

“Is she gonna be okay?” Molly asked, obviously worried.

“Yeah, she’ll be fine. Winston would let us know if something was wrong.” Genji said. When he saw that his words didn’t really make her feel much better, he smiled and gently ruffled her hair, “But, then again, he’s probably been working so much he’s forgotten to eat…” He glanced at the door that would get him to the kitchen, “Maybe I’ll make him something, that way I can check on Athena’s progress and not let Athena have to worry about him later…” He paused as he looked at them, “Speaking of making people worry.” He said, pointing to Roadhog’s hand.

He glanced down and saw that the hand he had crushed the teacup with was finally starting to bleed a bit, not a lot, as they weren’t that deep and the shards would probably fall out eventually and the blood would most likely make it red and then immediately clot, but Molly began to panic anyways.

“We need ta get ta Angie!” She cried, doing her best to try to drag him to her office, much to his embarrassment and Ana, Hanzo and Genji’s amusement.

“I’ll go, you go help Genji make th’ ape somethin’ ta eat.” He finally said after about thirty seconds of her trying to make him move. She looked up at him with a determined expression, sharp and pointed cowlicks and puffed up cheeks.

He cracked a smile and gently ruffled her hair again, “So scary.” He told her, a smile curling up her own cheeks at the praise. “If it’ll make ya feel better, Bob, Ana ‘n Hanzo’ll go with me ta make sure I go, ‘kay?”

Molly’s cowlicks went wavy as she considered this, Bob getting up to stretch a bit before walking over to his side as she nodded, “’Kay.” She gave Bob a pat on the head before she turned and scowled sternly at Ana and Hanzo and told them to, “Make sure ‘e goes!”

The two of them had sly smiles on their faces before they agreed, commenting that she was ‘so scary when she was mad’ making her smile broadly as she followed Genji on his way to the kitchen.

“Jus’ leave it ta me, Genji!” she told him, “Me ‘n Winston have worked hard to figure out what th’ best koind of sandwich is fer lunch toime ‘n I think I’ve finally got it!”

Genji chuckled and told her he would follow her lead while Ana and Hanzo snickered as they made their way to Angela’s office, Bob simply walking beside him, being the ever loyal pooch he was.

“Maybe we should have retrieved some icing before we began our little escort mission.” Ana teased. Hog did his best not to react on the outside, even though he could feel his face and ears burning already.

“Maybe we can drop some off after Angela is done fixing his hand.” Hanzo replied coolly, “He may need it.”

Hog did his best not to clench his fists, to not punch Hanzo for that little comment, to not run on ahead without them and to _not _let them have the satisfaction of knowing that their teasing was getting to him.

He had a flash back to when he was younger, trying to follow the advise of so many stupid ‘how to make bullies leave you alone’ books, biting back tears as the other children would point and taunt. At least when he got bigger they only really did it when they thought he wasn’t around. At least then he didn’t hear it as often.

Bob stopped and let out a bark, allowing Hog to finally turn around as Bob looked at him, as if telling him, ‘Carry me, that way if you react to something, you can blame it on me’.

‘Bob is such a good boy.’ He thought as he walked over to him and gently scooped him up with his good hand and cradled him in his arm as he walked back to where Ana and Hanzo were waiting, “Thanks.” He said, although he didn’t make it clear if he was thanking the humans for waiting or for the dog to allow him a moment of reprieve from the teasing.

It was the dog, of course. But the humans nodded as if it were for them and they made their way to Angela’s office, Hog asking Hanzo questions about organized crime.

“Why do you want to know about that?” he’d asked.

“’Parently Ches’s pissed a bunch of tha’ type off, wanna know what ta expect.” He said. And, after explaining what she’d probably done, Hanzo filled him in on what to expect from a Japanese organized crime family, which honestly was nothing either he or Ches couldn’t handle, but it was better to know about some of the massive amount of people who could come for Molly.

Once they got there, the two stood by the doorway as he went in, snickering a bit when Anglea seemed surprised by his being there.

He held up his injured hand, silently explaining his presence before further adding that, “Molly made them escort me.” As he thumbed back to the two behind him, who quickly took their leave after Angela got a good look at their cheerful faces, a frown forming as she wondered what on earth would make his pain funny to them.

She then motioned for him to sit on a bed while she got something that resembled a petri dish and tweezers and began picking the pieces out of his hand as Bob nuzzled into his lap, enjoying the back rub Hog gave him as she worked.

“So, do I want to know why you have pieces of what looks like a tea cup in your hand?” she asked, holding up a piece with part of the pattern on it.

“Ana told me ‘bout what those fuckin’ cunts at th’ Australian Government wanted ta do with Molly.” He growled, just remembering her words making him start to shake a bit as he rubbed Bob, but he kept his touch gentle on the pup, as, unlike those bastards, the dog didn’t basically ask them to use a child to lure her mother into capture and possible death via hundreds of hitmen sent by vengeful drongos.

“Ah, I’m surprised you only broke the cup.” She teased with a smile as she carefully pulled out another shard.

“Me too.” He admitted, “Still want ta break their necks, but I can wait until I get ta th’ trainin’ grounds ta let it all out.”

“That’s a good way to handle it.” she said, sounding pleased with him.

“How did you handle th’ news?” he asked her.

She stiffened a bit, her cheeks turning a cute rose color as she held the tweezers a few centimeters over his hand, “Ana didn’t tell you?” she asked nervously.

“Tell me what?” he replied, smiling like a fool at the pink on her cheeks, not that she could see that.

It wasn’t every day the good Doctor blushed like a school girl, but he was finding that he was seeing that expression more and more as time went on.

And he liked it.

A lot.

“Well, my reaction to their…” she paused for a moment, trying to find a good work for what those fuckers had asked them before settling on, “_request_ was… _unprofessional_ to say the least.”

“What? You throw somethin’ at them or…” he paused when he saw her go from pink to red and felt chuckles start to bubble up from his belly, “You _didn’_.” He gasped, ready to burst out laughing.

“I… I may have thrown my shoe at the hologram when Ana and Winston held me back from trying to leap at it…” she admitted shamefully, Hog laughing so hard at this new information that he had to move Bob to the spot beside him so his bouncing belly wouldn’t launch the pup to the other side of the room.

“It’s not that funny!” she cried, frustrated that he was laughing at her. She pouted as she resumed picking bits of china out of his massive palm before he finally calmed down enough to ask, “Where’d ya hit ‘um?”

She was surprised, but then seemed a bit proud as she informed him that she hit, “I believe you called them ‘family jewels’?” He started laughing even harder and nearly fell off the bed, catching himself with both hands on the floor, making him wince when he felt the shards go deeper into his skin.

Okay, _now_ his hand kinda hurt.

Angela gasped and fussed over him as he slowly pulled himself up and had him ‘sit down and stay still’ as she ran to a nearby cabinet and pulled out a jar, Bob curling up under his good hand, whining as if to ask, ‘Are you okay?’ and licking his belly, as if trying to comfort him.

Angela opened a nearby drawer and fished out a spoon, it finally hitting him what the jar was filled with as she drew closer.

“… Is tha’ honey?” He asked, confused.

“Yes,” she said cheerfully as she placed the far and spoon onto a nearby tray, opened the jar and began scraping the slow, golden fluid onto his bleeding hand with the spoon, “Honey is very helpful for getting things like splinters, thorns and other small things out of your body painlessly, it’s also antiseptic and has theraputic properties!” she informed him as she got big glop of it to fall onto his hand, “So it’s good for killing off potential infections.”

“’N ‘ere I thought it was jus’ tasty.” He chuckled.

“Honey has many wonderful qualities.” She said, looking relieved now that the wounds were being handled (and that he wasn’t laughing at her anymore) as well as a bit guilty for being the reason he fell, even if it was because he had been laughing at her.

A silence fell over them as she completely covered his hand with honey and put the jar and spoon onto a nearby countertop, and unlike the usual one they could find themselves in, this one was awkward. With all the stuff that just happened as well as what happened after Molly’s party…

Yeah…

“… Moind checking how me lungs are when yer done helpin’ me with me hand?” He finally asked, making her jump a bit at her desk as she finished typing up a report on what happened. She let the question soak in for a moment before smiling and nodding, pulling up more data from her computer and poking at little screens that appeared in the air.

He had to put Bob down for a bit while she did another scan and began comparing it to his last one, it didn’t look too different from the last one to him, but what did he know about this stuff? He watched her make some notes as he lifted Bob back onto his lap. Once she was done, she handed him a weekly pill sorter, completely filled with the medicine he was already taking to help with the radiation poisoning he and Rat had along with a few other, much smaller pills.

“The medicine I’m going to give you for your lungs is a smaller pill than the ones you take for your radiation poisoning, I thought it would be easier to simply give you them like this. That way you can simply pop the top and pour the pills into your mouth and swallow them with whatever drink you’d like, except for anything alcoholic.”

“I need to take any now?” He asked.

“No, but you will need to start after dinner.” She told him. He nodded and thanked her as he carefully took the pill sorter and stuffed it into his pocket.

She went over a few more things, explaining what the medicine would do and told him to let her know if he didn’t feel well after taking it, then she checked his honey covered hand for progress, “It looks like a few pieces have already come out!” she said cheerfully as she grabbed her tweezers and began plucking the bits and pieces that had come out and putting them in the dish, getting a bit of honey on her fingers and palm as she did so.

After she fished the loose pieces out, she seemed to notice the honey and carefully and slowly licked it off her fingers with a sweet smile, obviously enjoying the taste.

Hog swallowed hard as he struggled to keep his thoughts from sliding down the gutter as he wondered _why_ she would do this to him. JUST FUCKING **_WHY_**?!!?

He felt Bob discreetly dig his nails into his leg to keep him from getting too… _excited_.

‘Good dog’, he thought, happy with the distraction of figuring out how to thank him to keep his mind off of what Dr. Angela Ziegler just fucking did as she now got up to wash her hands and arms.

She returned to his spot with the chess board, which was another great distraction and he soon felt himself being at ease, the two taking a break from playing and talking every once in a while for Angela to pick pieces out of the honey and help herself to the honey that stuck to her before properly washing it off.

Bob kept crawling on and off of his lap to help by digging his claws into his leg, gently nipping at his fingers, and just generally being fussy to help keep his mind out of the gutter, earning himself a huge steak in the near future for all of this.

By the time Athena, who must have been done with her ‘check up’, finally informed them that it was time for dinner, the last bits of the cup were finally out of his hand and he had washed the honey off (after letting Bob help himself, it was the least he could do for all the help) and she covered his hand in plasters.

“They should be fine, but let me know if they hurt or anything.” She said warmily as she began putting the empty honey jar and spoon into the sink to clean them, licking the spoon in a way that made him need to bite hard on his lip until he tasted blood along with Bob’s help to keep from going nuts. She put it in the sink and quickly cleaned it along with the jar, Bob slinking off of his lap and looking at her like he was saying, ‘Lady, give this poor guy a break already…’

Thank Christ. The honey thing was all over…

Then she spotted some honey on her finger, she seemed surprised and smiled as she was about to lick it off when he popped off the bed and snatched her hand away and for some reason he couldn’t even fathom at the moment, other than to make the torture stop, lifted his mask and stuck her finger in his mouth, surprising her.

It didn’t take long to get the honey off her finger and release her, but her crimson colored expression when he let her go made him realize just how that probably looked.

And was.

And shite.

Shite. Shite. SHITE. He needed to think of something, he needed to think of something _fast_.

He then had it. He carefully pulled his mask back down and chuckled, “Now, we’re even.” Before leaving the room with Bob right behind him, leaving a baffled and bashful Angela behind as he quietly closed the door behind him.

He felt his entire face and his ears burn as soon as the door was closed.

What. The. Fuck. Did. He. Just. _Do_?

He didn’t mean to! He just wanted her to stop doing that! He couldn’t take it anymore! And what the fuck did he mean ‘we’re even’?!

He wanted to have the full blown freak out he could feel close to bursting out of him, but he couldn’t have it here. Not when she could easily open the door…

Bob gently patted his leg and motioned further down the hall, reminding him what he and Molly often did before dinner.

“Roight, bettah get you outsoide ta go.” He remembered, deciding that he owed the dog two steaks now as they made their way outside. “Hmm… Hey Bob, you prefer flank steak or t-bone?” he asked him.

Bob let out a bark that, to him at least, said ‘why not both?’

He laughed a bit, feeling a bit of his anxiety lighten on his back as he replied, “Fair ‘nough.”


	43. Cool heads and flushed faces

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One of the two honey incident victims decides to cool down by the pool.

Now that the door to her office was safely shut after Junkrat happily fled from her office, pleased that his follow up appointments were finally over, Angela was free to stare at the empty honey jar from what happened two days ago without worrying about the others offering to throw it away for her (Junkrat simply left it alone and didn’t question it), her cheeks burning as she gently traced the logo on the jar with her finger.

The same finger that had been in his mouth.

She felt her face burn hotter and her heart rate increase again. She quickly placed her hands on her cheeks in an attempt to cool them down as she bit her lip to hold back a scream of frustration at herself for being unable to do anything but stare at him after that while flailing her legs under her desk.

She was also silently cursing herself for being unable to throw the jar out and save herself from constantly thinking about that moment when he placed her finger into his mouth, quickly licked away the honey and then said those words that made her whole body warm in ways she was not used to.

She released her lip and stared at the jar, her heart still beating like crazy at the thought of how gentle his hand had been taking hers and how fast he got that honey off…

Oh mein Gott, why did she have to think of it like _that_?!!

She threaded her fingers through her hair, embarrassed and frustrated…

She couldn’t say she didn’t like it. But it had been quite the shock, and his comment afterwards, “Now we’re even” had send her thoughts spinning, to say the least…

And keeping her up at night with fantasies straight out of the books he lent her to be completely honest about it.

She closed her eyes and leaned back into her chair.

What was she going to do about all of this?

His responses both with the frosting incident and what happened after she realized he was getting flustered whenever she helped herself to the honey stuck to her fingers halfway through pulling out all of the bits of broken china from his massive hand and decided to tease him a bit about it had given her the impression that her feelings weren’t one sided.

Okay, a little more than just an impression.

Okay, a lot more.

However, how did one go from here?

Angela huffed a bit and stared blankly at the screen in her office, silently wishing she’d had more dating experience when she was younger. However, due to her skipping grades and focusing on her clinic hours when she was younger, she didn’t really get a chance to even try having a romantic relationship before because she was always so busy with other things. She never really had any more than maybe a few crushes, a few dinner dates and a quick fling or two when she worked for Overwatch the first time.

Not like that changed at all when she accepted the recall, if anything, she’d had less time for romance since she was in charge of everyone’s health.

But this wasn’t the old Overwatch, the military like ‘efficency’ was no more. It was far more laid back than the original, but no less efficient, if anything, it was more so. There were no ironclad rules about this sort of thing like there were back then, she could date whomever she pleased in this group without worrying about getting into trouble for dating a patient. (Since no one would report her about that and it wasn’t like there were any other doctors here, so it wasn’t like there could be anyone else taking Mako’s case in her stead.)

Now that she thought about it, Roadhog didn’t really seem have any dating experience either before he was in the AFL (sleeping with Cheshire not being included or thought about) and Junkrat had explained that in Junkertown, if you had an itch, you found someone willing to scratch it and went back to what you were doing. No strings attached.

She briefly wondered how it would feel to have him scratch her itch before blushing furiously and covering her face as if it would hide her shame at thinking about doing such a thing when she still hadn’t done anything like holding his hand for non clinical reasons or kissing or hugging or being cradled in those massive and comfy looking arms of his and…!

She needed to stop. She was in her office. This was not the place for that kind of thing.

‘Says the woman who taunted him by sucking honey off of her fingers and licking it off of her arms!’ she thought, frustrated at herself. But no matter how embarrassed she was about it now, she didn’t regret it for a second, in all honesty, she wished she had realized his… _reactions_ sooner. Watching him grip the side of the bed, the bloody lip he had when he placed her finger into his mouth, all of the hard work Bob did to help him.

She just… she just couldn’t help herself. She glanced back at the bed he had sat on, the spot where he had grabbed the bed still warped and crushed from his massive fingers. The same fingers that had been so gentle as they took her hand…

She felt warmth spread through her body and immediately flushed and buried her head in her arms. She needed to cool down.

Maybe a dip in the pool? Yeah, that sounded good right about now, actually. She hadn’t been to the pool in a while and just because she hadn’t been needed on the field lately didn’t mean that there wasn’t a chance they’d been needed at a moment’s notice.

So she informed Athena to let her know if anyone needed medical attention and that she’d be at the pool before heading to her room to grab her stuff and went to the pool’s changing room, grateful that they had a changing room by the pools so she wouldn’t have to walk around the base in a bathing suit.

Speaking of which…

Last time she had worn one, it was an old, worn out one piece. She didn’t think anyone other than Molly, Bob and the Amaris would ever see her in that and she’d been wrong then.

But, you don’t just go do laps in a bikini…

Hmm…

She closed her eyes and went through a mental list of her bathing suits. Other than her really old one piece and her three bikinis, she had two other one pieces. One was a white one, she’d only worn it once because she quickly found out what happens when you wear a white bathing suit and then go in the water. (That had been so embarrassing, she was so glad she had been wearing a t-shirt over it that day!) So that left the pink one she had bought when she had been out shopping with the other girls. She’d bought a bikini as well, due to Fareeha’s insistance, but only Hana, Satya and Molly were permitted to see her in either bathing suit to see if it looked good on her. Ana had been scolding Fareeha when she had finally left the changing room and none of the others told her why…

She shook off the memory as she reached her room, Molly excitedly running out of her room with her entire dried flower collection in her arms with Bob right behind her as she nearly rammed into her, “Whoa!” Molly cried, barely missing her, “Sorry Angie!”

“Where are you off to in such a rush?” she asked.

“Winston said ‘e’d do a lesson on some of th’ flowers we’ve collected ‘n asked if we had any samples!” She held up her arms, which were full of dried flowers, the gaps in her smile much smaller now, the adult teeth coming in nicely, “I have this many!”

“Wow, you have so many!” She said, watching warmly as the little one puffed up her chest with pride.

“What are you going to do with all of those?” she asked.

Molly paused, thoughtful, “Dunno. Maybe I’ll ask Winston fer seeds from these ‘n make a garden. Think Bastion would loike tha’ ‘n it would be a noice place to meditate with Genji ‘n Zen ‘n Hanzo ‘n…”

Angela knelt down and gently cupped her cheeks in her palms and gently stroked her face with her thumbs, surprising the little girl with the action, “You are such a thoughtful child, Molly. We are lucky to have you here with us.”

Molly’s cheeks turned pink and she bashfully looked down into her armful of flowers before pulling one out and handing it to her before dashing down the hall towards Winston’s lab, her face turning redder as she ran, Bob right behind her, shooting Angela a ‘Jeez, lady, cut these two a break!’ look before running out of sight.

She looked at the flower, curious. It was a light pink hibiscus and to her surprise, hadn’t been dried, in fact, it looked as if it had been only been picked the day before, the bottom of the stem still damp. Making her ponder the last outing Molly had gone on to have been able to pick this.

‘Let’s see…’ Angela thought as she carefully placed the flower in her hair and looking at how nice it looked in her mirror before she then gathered her things in a bag to go to the pool, ‘The honey incident was two days ago and Roadhog and Winston actually went with them for their outing this time.’ She chuckled as she recalled Roadhog returning with beautiful purplish blue flowers in his hair that Winston informed them to be called Cerinthe, which was called the ‘Pride of Gibraltar’, Molly happily leading him by his pinky to the nearest mirror. “See? You look pretty, Daddy, not scary!”

“I feel pretty.” She remembered him rumbling in that deep voice of his.

“Pftttt….” She snorted at the memory as she clutched the nearest wall to hold herself up as she laughed as she remembered how Hana made him strike poses and took pictures of him, making a mental note to ask for the one where he had a massive hand on his cheek and the other on his hip as Hana cried out for him to ‘SHOW MORE LEG, HOGGY!’

She then fell to her knees as she recalled how he had obliged, laughing so hard tears sprung from her eyes.

“Angela?” a voice called from her door, making her freeze, “Are you in there?”

She froze, “Fareeha?” she replied as she pulled herself to her feet and saw that her old friend took her reply as an invitation to open her door, holding her shoulder.

“Are you alright?” she blurted, motioning for Fareeha to come further into the room as she then continued her line of questioning with an, “Are you hurt?”

“Well, I dislocated my arm when I was working out with a couple of the others,” She said, looking a bit embarrassed and more than just a little annoyed as she informed her that, “Roadhog managed to put in back in, surprisingly, but said I should still get it checked out.” She then frowned and looked at her shoulder and rubbed it gingerly, “Don’t know how he even knows how to do that, but it feels much better than it did before…”

“Mako used to help his mother, who was a nurse, after school when he was little. That’s how he knows a tremendous amount about how to perform first aid.” Angela explained as she began to do an external inspection of his handiwork.

“Mako?” Fareeha asked, confused.

“Roadhog.” Angela explained as she felt a small smile on her lips at his work, Fareeha’s arm would be sore for a little while, but it would heal quite nicely, “The man who did very nice work, your arm should heal quite well! But I still want to get you an ice pack and a sling for your arm and I want you to wear it for at least a week, no buts!”

Fareeha said nothing and followed her obediently to her office, her eyes not leaving Angela as she opened the door, instructed her to sit down on a bed while she retrieved a small ice pack from the mini fridge and freezer she had for blood packs, certain medicines and well, ice packs.

After that she placed her arm in a sling and put a note in her file about it, since after someone dislocates their shoulder, it becomes easier for it to happen again. After that she felt something in her hair and jerked her head upwards realizing that Fareeha was no longer sitting on one of the beds and was carefully pulling the flower out of her hair, “What’s this?”

“Oh, Molly gave it to me earlier.” She said with a smile, “Isn’t she sweet? I think she collected it on her outing yesterday.”

“So, she picked this up along with all those flowers that were in Roadhog’s hair?” Fareeha asked as she carefully handed the flower back to her, smiling.

Angela let out another snort and promptly covered her mouth with her free hand.

Fareeha started snickering with her, “Show more leg, Hoggy.” She managed before the two women burst out laughing, leaning on the desk for support.

“He was so PLEASED with himself!” Angela howled.

“And then when Junkrat, McCree and Genji joined in…!!” Fareeha squeaked, the two sliding down to their knees, clinging to the desk as if for dear life as they laughed until it was hard to breathe.

They finally broke down into chuckles and coughing fits before they finally calmed down enough for them to pull themselves back up, Fareeha stopping as she spotted the empty jar, “What’s this?” she asked, poking it with a finger.

The moment that Mako stuck her finger in his mouth and purred out that now they were even popped back into her mind and she felt her face explode with color and heat, “That! That’s an empty honey jar.” She said bashfully, easily telling that she failed to play it cool by the Egyptian’s surprised expression.

The brown eyes looked at her, her expression impish, “What kind of kinky stuff did you do with this stuff?” she teased.

“Kinky?!” She blurted, her embarrassment dying her face a deeper shade of red and she started to feel a little dizzy, did sucking honey off of one’s self or someone else qualify as that? Mein Gott, don’t think about that! Quick! Think of something, anything! “I just had a little too much of it, that’s all!” she finally said.

It wasn’t exactly a lie, but how much and what the honey had been on was not something she wanted to share right now and silently prayed that Fareeha would _not_ ask her about.

Fareeha looked her up and down, as if trying to gage if she had gained any extra weight, before looking back to the jar, “Well, I can toss it out-“

“No!” she blurted before mentally slapping herself, barely able to keep herself from slapping her free hand over her mouth.

‘Um nicht komisch zu sein, Angela.’ She thought before quickly looking at the flower and smiling, “I can use it as a vase for the flower Molly gave me!” she said, quickly and carefully putting her flower down and picking the jar up to take to the sink, mouthing prayers in Swiss German that Fareeha would not question why she’d do that.

She quickly opened and filled the jar with water and walked it back to her desk before happily placing the flower into it, smiling proudly at how she found a good reason to keep the jar and by how nice it looked. It reminded her of how whenever she’d bring wildflowers into the house for her mother, how she’d take anything from empty jam jars to cleaned out containers of spagetti sauce, anything on hand, really, and use them as a vase and place the flowers in a place of pride in the middle of the kitchen table.

“Doesn’t it look a bit, well, plain?” Fareeha asked.

“Plain?” she repeated, surprised and a teeny bit offended.

“Well, yeah, I mean, it’s a flower in a jar.” she said.

“Flower shops have arrangements in jars,” she argued, a little hurt that her friend would think so little of her newest decoration, “and besides, it reminds me of my home from when I was a child…” she gently traced a finger under a pink petal, “I’d bring my mother flowers and she’d place them in jars and empty food containers, just like this.”

“Mine always just places them in her hair.” Fareeha said sheepishly, “Sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings…”

“It’s fine.” She said, waving her hand as if to dismiss the guilt her friend rightfully had, “You didn’t know. And honestly, I’ve blocked most of my memories of my parents out until recently…”

“Until we found Molly?” Fareeha asked. Angela nodded in confirmation, her fingers tracing the edges of the petals as she felt a small warmth settle in her chest.

Fareeha bit her lip and rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly, obviously uncomfortable.

“Is something wrong, Fareeha?” she asked, catching her off guard.

“It’s… well…” Her cheeks turned pink as she struggled to find her words, the room uncomfortably quiet for a moment before she opened her mouth to speak, only to then close it.

“Fareeha?” she asked, concerned.

“Sorry, I forgot what I was going to say.” She said smiling apologetically and raising her injured arm, “thanks for the sling.”

“Ah, it was no trouble.” She assured her as Fareeha left her office, leaving her alone with her jar, flower and thoughts… which quickly went back to the honey incident and she really should go back and grab her stuff and take a long, cold dip in the pool before she caught on fire like Junkrat would.

She returned to her room and collected her bag and quickly made her way to the pool. When she finally made it to the changing room, she let out a sigh of relief as she changed into her bathing suit, this is just what she needed, a nice, cool dip in the pool.

She took her towel and left her bag and clothes in the changing room, ready to dive in and clear her head…

Only to see Mako with his feet in the water, a book in his hands as he sat by the water’s edge, turn to her, surprised.

“Mako, what are you doing here?” she asked, feeling her cheeks turn the same shade of pink as her bathing suit, but was relieved that she was at least wearing a cuter bathing suit than last time.

“Gettin’ me feet wet.” He replied, his ears red and visible cheek red, “Too busy helpin’ Molly ta do tha’ at th’ beach on ‘er birthday. Thought I’d give it a try today since she’s got ‘er lessons ‘n Rat’s behavin’ more now since ‘e ‘n ‘Metra are datin’.”

“So they _are_ dating now!” Angela blurted happily, pleased. She’d seen them holding hands under the table at dinner when she passed them to get more and a few other little things here and there since Molly’s party, but to hear that they were dating officially now was a wonderful thing indeed.

“Yeah, they’re keepin’ it a secret from Vishkar, but tha’s it. Me ‘n Molly have known fer a while now, but it was funny as all hell watching Pipsqueak ‘n Lúcio react ta th’ news.” He said, his ears and visible cheek now pink, as if he was slowly acclimating to her wearing that bathing suit as she placed her towel on a nearby chair and sat down beside him.

“I can guess how Hana reacted, but now you have me curious about how Lúcio took the news.”

“’E started jumpin’ ‘round goin’ ‘WOO!’ ‘n laughin’, then grabbed Pipsqueak ‘n took ‘er fer a dance.” He informed her, “Pipsqueak went pink. Molly filmed it with ‘er phone.” He pulled his own massive phone from his pocket and tapped at the screen for a second before holding it out for her.

She carefully took the phone and smiled at the image of Lúcio smiling broadly with a bashful, but happy Hana in his arms in a fun looking dip.

“Lucky fer them, Molly had th’ forethought ta ask th’ ape ‘fore she posted this on social media, which’ll keep Vishkar off our backs. But didn’ stop ‘er from sendin’ it ta all of us.”

“Ah, I’ll have to check my phone later then!” Angela said cheerfully as she passed it back to him before sliding into the water, making her glad that, despite her coming over to cool her head, that the pool was heated. The last thing she wanted was to freeze the moment she hit the water.

Mako, on the other hand, seemed to freeze the moment she slid in the water, his visible face and ears red again.

“Would you like to join me?” she asked, surprising herself.

His answer came a moment later, “… Yeah, but I doubt th’ ape will be happy if me fat arse makes th’ water go over the edge.”

“If it doesn’t overflow from Winston or Reinhardt using this pool, I doubt you will change that.” She told him, unable to keep herself from playfully splashing some water at him, getting a little on his shorts and the back of his book.

She could see his eyes narrow through the lenses of his mask, “Oh, it’s on now.” He said, removing his hook and placing that, his phone and his book by her towel before carefully sliding in behind her, his massive body sending little waves of water from his entry point, Angela feeling herself being knocked backwards a bit, only for a massive, but gentle hand to hold her upright, “Sorry.” He rumbled as he held her carefully in his arms for a moment for the little wave pool he created to pass before looking at her with those intense grey eyes of his, curious, “So, I told ya why I came ‘ere today, what ‘bout you? Why did you feel loike goin’ fer a swim today?”

‘Keine Panik’ she told herself, although if she would panic from being in the warm and comfy position of being in his arms or that she’d need to quickly come up with an excuse, she had no idea, but she quickly decided to stay on task so only her pink face would give her away.

“Well, after Fareeha came in to get her arm checked out.” She paused smiling up at him, “You did a wonderful job putting her arm back into the socket, by the way. She’ll heal nicely thanks to your help.” He nodded, then motioned to her to continue.

“Anyways, after she left, I realized I haven’t really had any exercise in a while. I thought a nice swim would be good for me.” She fibbed.

“So you didn’t want Zarya ta moicromanage a workout ‘n diet fer ya?” he chuckled.

“Perhaps.” She said, giving him a sheepish smile before he released her, her body feeling a bit cold despite the pool being heated. She splashed him again in retrobution before swimming away, finding that he quickly was able to catch her with a swift, but powerful push of his arms towards her. Even the fairly large waves that came off his body from his movement in the water couldn’t help push her farther away from him.

Once again, she found herself in his arms, his belly bouncing as he laughed, “Didn’ even need me hook!” She started to laugh too, gently leaning against his chest and belly, his body radiating a comforting warmth that she happily soaked in.

Perhaps cooling her head wasn’t what she needed most right now. Perhaps all she needed was a warm embrace from the right person.


	44. Heaven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rat considers the concept of heaven while enjoying his new secret girlfriend's affections and Symmetra calls her mother.

Junkrat was lounging under the table in the conference room, smirking as Satya gave her weekly report for Vishkar, doing his best not to give away his position and biting back giggles.

Not that Satya didn’t know he was here. Oh, no, she knew _exactly_ where he was. They were holding hands under the table without the dumbass Talon fucker knowing a damn thing. He bit back another giggle as the cunt on the other end asked, “Oh, I’ve been meaning to ask you about this, apparently that _thief_ is going to have a new music video coming out soon, and it will feature Miss Song as well as… _the child_.” Rat stiffened and he felt her hand squeeze at his, as if silently telling him that ‘I’ve got this, Jamie.’

“Yes, Molly made several sculptures for him on commission.” She informed him.

“_Commission_?” He snorted, “And what exactly did she ask for in return?”

“A chance to have him help her advocate for equal rights for Junkers.” She replied, “She feels that Junkers have the right to education and to be able to apply for legal and steady jobs without being judged or labeled as criminals and believes that if they can have access to that, there is a chance that the crime rate in Australia can go down and everyone can be friends.”

Junkrat smiled warmly at that, it was unlikely that those simple things could change over twenty years of issues between Junkers, the Australian government (fucking bastards) and the general Australian public, but the fact that she wanted to make everyone friends was sweet enough to put a smile on both his and Satya’s faces.

“How naïve.” He scoffed.

Rat crawled forward and glanced up at her with his head on the knees of her slacks, his expression one of defensiveness and rage at the comment.

He was known for blowing plenty of things up and wrecking shite, but even he would never destroy a child’s dream!

Satya lowered her metal hand into her lap and released his flesh hand with hers before she began to gently stroke his face in an effort to calm him as she said, “Perhaps, but there could be potential to better the world in some of those Junkers,” She gently threaded her fingers in his hair and began stroking his head the way he liked as she went onto say that, “And the idea of providing education and a chance for a better life is something we at Vishkar have been doing for years, it certainly worked for me and many others. If we can do that, surely Molly can start to do something similar for Junkers.”

Junkrat smiled at her, pleased, ‘Yeah Luv! Go fer th’ jugular!’ he thought, proud at his secret girlfriend for basically making her boss look like he didn’t believe in his own overcontrolling company’s morals.

“T-that’s…!” He paused, “Not actually a bad idea. If she has any other work, send pictures and I can see if I can convince the board to extend an offer to go to one of our universities when she’s older…”

“Didn’t you already do that?” She asked. Junkrat barely managed to contain the panic on his face.

Shite, that was right. Molly told her that the bloody suit had offered her a spot at one of those fancy schools.

“Did I?” he asked nervously.

Ugh, as much as he wanted to let him hang himself here, he had to step in. Junkrat gently poked at her leg and she glanced down at him, watching as he mouthed, ‘Th’ bloke was three sheets ta th’ wind, Luv, doubt ‘e ‘members nearly barfin’ on Molls neither. Or how Hog tried ta kill ‘im again fer tha’.’

“Ah, that is right, you were quite ill when you made that offer, weren’t you?” She said, looking back up at the see through head, that looked quite relieved at the excuse.

Ugh, Now Rat wished he’d just let him screw himself over!

“Yes, yes I was! I must have made that offer while I wasn’t feeling well, an old habit I suppose.” He said, then looked at her, curious, “What was her reply again?”

“She politely turned you down, saying that she wanted to be a Hero of Overwatch when she grows up and save the world.” She smiled broadly, most likely remembering how she had said she wanted to be heros just like them. Rat lost himself in the pleasant memory and the feel of her fingers through his hair and his chin in her lap, his eyes closing and a happy, dazed grin on his face.

He was in heaven right now. No doubts about that. He had a feeling that someone, maybe his parents, back before the haze of the radiation blasted through the Outback, had told him about heaven. A place you go where you die. Later his definition of heaven was rewritten to be a place where water was clean and it and food were plentiful, where medicine was easy to come by and where he could basically make his bombs safely and try all the designs he never had the proper supplies to give a real go.

So, basically here.

Hog had once given him one of those mushy books where the main character discussed how heaven was in the arms of the person they love. At the time, Rat saw it as a pathetic one liner to make the people who bought the book (Hog stole it) feel justified paying however much they paid for it that the pile of pages was truly a wonderful work of romantic fiction.

And while Rat wasn’t sure he could say that book was a wonderful work of romantic fiction, he now realized that the pile of shite was right; It _was_ heaven in her arms.

“Yes, well, a proper education never hurts, and the offer will still stand when she’s older. And while I know you are doing your best, it is not your job to teach her…”

“I am not the only one teaching her. The others are all doing their fair share, even when Lúcio was here, he was teaching her how to read sheet music and before he left, he said Molly got him thinking about making an album to help children learn their letters and numbers.”

The suit made a disgusted noise in his throat, “More like to brainwash young children into believing his lies.” He accused.

Rat bit back an urge to comment about how a bloke who tried mind controlling a whole town with sound had no right to accuse anyone else of such a thing.

Pot calling the Kettle corn, or something like that.

“It’s not as if such things didn’t exist before, there are songs that teach several things to children, I believe even we learned such songs while in Vishkar schools.” She swallowed hard and Rat put his hands over hers and gently moved her flesh palm to his lips and gave it a soft kiss, making her relax a bit as she continued on to say that, “And while I disagree with nearly everything he stands for, he and I _do_ agree on one thing; that children should be able to have an education, no matter what their circumstances.”

“Well, at least he has _one_ somewhat decent opinion.” The suit sighed, then paused, confused, “Vaswani, what are you doing with your hands?”

Shite.

“What?” she asked, surprised.

“What. Are you doing. With your. Hands.” He said, anger present in his voice.

He quickly grabbed his phone and texted Molly:

‘Con room, h ‘n s, hurry.’

“Vaswani?” He called, annoyed that she wasn’t answering.

Rat then saw Molly come running around the corner to the rescue through the glass wall, Bob at her heels as she stuffed her new phone into her pocket before she flung the door open and shouted, “FOUND YOU, RAT!” while pointing under the table at him, giving him a broad smile as she did so, pleased that she could help.

He bit back a sigh of relief as he popped out from beside Satya, “Aw, ‘n I thought I had ya this toime!” he laughed before looking to his secret girlfriend, “Thanks fer keepin’ quiet ‘bout me bein’ there, ‘Metra!”

She let out a sigh of relief that they’d managed to come up with a good excuse as to why he was there before saying, “Please don’t do that again.” Her words meaning for him not to pop up so suddenly, while sounding like something she would say if asked to stay quiet about him being under the table to play a kids game.

“Roight, next toime I’ll hoide behind Hog!” he said.

“That would be the first place she’d look.” Satya teased, Molly and Bob nodding vigorously in agreement.

“Ha! Good point!” He laughed.

“Excuse me, but WHY was there a Junker under the table?!” The suit demanded.

“We’re playin’ hoide ‘n seek...” Molly replied, as if it was obvious, “’N I was it.”

“I slipped in ‘ere ‘fore th’ meetin’. Asked ‘Metra ta act loike I wasn’ ‘ere.” Rat fibbed.

“Okay. _Why_ are you playing hide and seek?” He snapped.

“A bunch of kids are comin’ over so we can all go ta a Halloween party in town! I need ta practice playin’ games loike a normal kid!” Molly told him.

The suit’s mouth opened, then closed, then opened again, “Ah.” He then looked to Satya, “You aren’t going to such a thing, are you? I mean, with your… _condition_…”

Junkrat struggled to not break the hologram, a feeling brewing in his gut that the comment was more about not letting her have fun with the rest of them then her ‘autism’ (he still had no idea what the fuck that word meant). But before he could say or do anything he wouldn’t regret later, Molly gave him the most heartbroken look to ever guilt trip, “But… But I worked so hard on th’ costumes with Hana…” Her eyes began to water, “’N… ‘n we were lookin’ forward ta seein’ ‘er face when she saw it. ‘N…’n…” She then started crying, Satya bending down to comfort the child as Bob growled at the hologram (Good boy, remind him who’s the real threat here). Rat glared at the suit, silently threatening a slow and painful death to the man who had better be on the other side of the planet if he wanted a chance to survive, pulling a denotator out of his pocket and snarling along with Bob.

He watched as the bastard went white and nervously cleared his throat, “Ehem. I’m sorry Vaswani, I have another call coming through…” He then quickly hung up.

Fucking little slimy shite!!! When Rat got his hands on him, he and Hog would make the cunt regret every choice he’d ever made!! The sound of a sobbing child quickly disarmed him and he stuffed the device back into one of his pockets, determinded to do damage _control_ for once as he knelt down and gently ruffled her hair, “Don’ worry too much about it, Molls, tha’ bloke jus’ don’ know how ta have fun.”

She nodded with a sniffle as she wiped at her face, seeming unconvinced as she looked at Satya, “Yer-yer still gonna come ta th’ party with us, roight?” she asked, her violet eyes pleading.

“Of course! This is one of the few parties I’ve actually been looking forward to!” she told her, doing her best to hide her discomfort at the thought of being in such a large, loud crowd with so many people in it. Rat felt his stomach twist at that, a little annoyed that the suit may actually have had Satya’s wellbeing in mind when he’d said that bit about not going before. But at the same time, he would be there too, he’d look after her to make sure she wasn’t overwhelmed. He could handle such a simple boyfriend duty like that, right?

Molly beamed at her and gave her a big hug, her body shaking, “Thank you.” She murmured before looking up at her, “You’ll loike th’ costume! Struth! It’s so pretty!” she assured her, her eyes sparkling.

“She ain’ loyin’.” Rat piped in, “Seen it. Helped with it. Looks ace.”

“Really?” she asked, sounding interested.

“Yup, but I ain’ gonna ruin the surprise, Pipsqueak’ll kill me.” He reminded her.

“Then it’s probably best that I stay in the dark, I wouldn’t want my curiosity to be the death of you.” She teased.

“Ta.” He replied, making her chuckle before looking at Molly, “So, what were you up ta?” He asked her.

“I was helpin’ with th’ costumes!” Molly informed him, “The others are comin’ tomorrow, so…”

“Oh, roight!” Rat said, smiling at her as he stood, “you excited ta meet all those other ankle boiters?”

Molly seemed to wring her hands, looking a bit uncomfortable, “Yeah, I guess…” she said, a bit nervous and her eyes glued to the floor as she spoke.

He and Satya quickly made eye contact before looking back down at her, “Is something wrong, Molly?” she asked.

“… Koinda.” She said softly, “It’s just, I don’ really know any of ‘um. I mean, ‘Risa talks ta Efi all th’ toime ‘n Torb talks ta ‘is family a lot, but I don’ really know any of ‘um…” She shrank a bit as she stopped to gently pat her puppy’s head, “What if they don’ loike me?” she asked in a quiet voice, her head staying down, but her cowlicks drooping and her body shaking a bit, almost as if she was trying not to cry again. Bob began doing damage control, covering her face in reassuring doggie kisses and nuzzling her as best he could.

Rat bent down and sat down beside her on the floor as he began rubbing her back, “It’ll be foine, Molls.” He said, uncertain of what to say next here. He had faith that she could make millions of friends, but until he’d come here, he only had one friend (that he could remember, anyway) and he had to pay him before he actually started to like him, so who the fuck was he to be able to convince her of that?

“Well, if you truly are nervous, perhaps you should ask Hana for advise on how to make friends? She is very popular with people online and off, perhaps she could give you some tips.” Satya suggested as she sat down with them too, graceful as ever as she took a spot beside him.

He was _so_ giving her a big kiss for that as soon as Molly and Bob were out of sight.

“… You-you really think tha’ will work?” she asked them softly, Bob kissing a tear off her cheek as her violet eyes sparkled with hope

“’Course!” Rat assured her, scooping her up and plopping her on his shoulders, holding onto her with his metal hand staying on her pants and his flesh arm scooping Bob into his arm, “Come on, we’ll take ya!” he offered as he and Satya both rose to their feet.

“And if you still feel uncomfortable after Hana teaches you, Molly, come by my room later, I’ll teach you a few socializing tips I learned when I was young that might help you as well.”

“Okay.” She said, wrapping her arms around Junkrat’s head, nuzzling her cheek into his hair, then pouted, “Rat, yer hair smells funny.” She complained.

“Okay, even I know tha’ rule numbah one of makin’ mates is ‘Don’ insult ‘um.’” He replied dryily.

“I ain’ tryin’ ta insult ya! I jus’ mean it don’ smell loike normal!” She explained, quickly, not liking that he seemed to feel like she insulted him.

“You been smellin’ me hair on th’ reg?” he asked, laughing.

“Not reg.” she replied, “Jus’, hard not ta when ‘m up this hoigh.” She put her hand through his hair, “It’s softer than normal too.” She reported.

“Well, I washed it today.” He said, “Maybe tha’s it.”

“Prob’ly.” She said, nuzzling her head into his hair, “Sorry I made ya think tha’ it was bad.” She apologized.

“No worries.” He said easily, pausing for a moment asking, “But it smells good, roight?” Molly gave him a thumbs up, her face not leaving his hair.

“Are you going to pull your head from out of there?” Satya chuckled. Molly shook her head, “No, it’s comfy ‘ere.”

“Comfy, ay?” he repeated, laughing, “Good ta know!”

Once they made it to Hana’s room, she and Satya worked to help yank Molly off of him before Pipsqueak gave them her word that she’d boost her confidence and work on her people skills before he and Satya were left alone in the hall.

He looked over at Satya and smirked, “Oi, Sat, ya hear?” He pointed to the top of his head, “’M comfy!”

She chuckled, “That remains to be seen. You only have Molly’s word, after all.”

“You callin’ ‘er a loiar?” he asked.

“No, I’m saying you may need another person to confirm it.” She said, her voice a low purr.

“You offerin’?” He grinned eagerly.

“If you aren’t too busy.” She replied warmly.

“Nah, Luv,” He said, scooping her up into his arms and smiling as she let out a pleasantly surprised laugh, “Got all day.” He assured her as he motioned towards her room, “Yer room?” He asked.

“Unless you’ve cleaned yours yet.” She said.

“Yer room it is, then.” He replied, making her laugh even harder for a moment as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

It didn’t take long to get to her room, hers, Pipsqueak’s, Molly’s and Mercy’s were the furthest from the hallway that sat between the boy’s and girl’s sides and Pipsqueak’s was literally just across the hall from Satya.

He gently placed her down on her bed with a kiss to her forehead, earning a few more giggles for himself that he would commit to his poor memory.

She then motioned for him to sit on the floor by the end of her bed and she began threading her fingers through his hair again. And since he didn’t need to hide anywhere this time, he was free to lean into her touch as her nails carefully scratched at his scalp, a big goofy grin on his face as she began softly singing something in her native tongue, leaving him wondering what she was saying as he let his eyelids droop from the soothing sound of her song.

Yeah, he was totally in heaven right now. He had no idea what he did to get here, but he’d gladly do it again in a heart beat.

It was a blissfully long time before she kissed his forehead, silently informing him that she was done and he happily opened them to see her smiling warmly down at him.

Yup, definitely heaven.

He hopped up and spun a bit, “Clean ‘nough ta sit?” he asked. She carefully inspected his shorts before excitedly blurting that, “You did laundry?”

“Yeah!” He replied, equally excited that she had noticed, “Thanks ta you, ‘m finally startin’ ta get used ta it! Even used th’ dryer this toime!”

She chuckled and said, “I still cannot believe that in this age, you Australians still use clothes lines!”

“Oi, dryers take a lot of energy ta run,” He explained as he pointed upwards with a finger, “Sun does jus’ as good fer nothin’.”

“Perhaps in Australia.” She said, “Where I’m from, the air was dirty with pollution, it was much cleaner to use a clothes washer and dryer than it was to do it by hand and hang it to dry.” She said, pausing for a moment, as if lost in her own memories of her first home.

“Was Hyderabad really tha’ bad?” he asked as he sat down beside her

“It’s called Hydera_bad_ for a reason, Jamie.” She said softly as she leaned into his shoulder, “But, while I do not miss the place. I do miss the people. My family especially.”

“Yer family, huh?” He asked, a brief flash of a pair with broad smiles and fuzzy faces from above popped into his mind before fleeing back to the abyss that happened before the Omnium blew, “What are they loike?” He found himself asking.

She was surprised for a moment, then screwed her face up in concentration, “Well, my father and older brothers were often away from home, working, but my mother and grandmother were often with me.” Her smile grew wide and soft as she told him that, “My grandmother was a warm, but tough woman, stern, exact, she always knew what she wanted and prepared for everything. My mother was far more relaxed and optimistic, gentle, but she often was the life of the party. She was well liked and taught me how to dance. We’d often sing songs and dance as we worked around the house, cleaning, cooking, holding hands as we went shopping for dinner so no one got snatched up or hurt. When we were done, I’d draw patterns on old wallpaper and scraps of paper my father and brothers would bring home from their work.” She scowled, “They used to be so _loud_ when they got home for dinner! It was always so much at once and I’d been knocked over more than once because I’d been overwhelmed by so much happening at once… But,” her face became remorseful, “Even if it was overwhelming at times, I found myself missing it when I left for Vishkar.”

“How’d you foind them?” He asked.

“They found me.” She corrected, “They saved me from that dirty, horrible crime ridden place.” She began forming something in the palms of her hands, “They gave me the education I never had.” A small structure began to bloom from the crystal in her palm, “They gave me a home that was clean and safe. They gave me the life I have now. They gave me the ability to bring my ideas into reality.” She said, the hard light lotus flower finally blossoming into the world, “They gave me hard light.”

“… Do they let you call yer Mum, though?” he asked quietly as he gently picked up the flower and pulled a few things from his pockets and began fiddling with odds and ends.

“… I-I haven’t spoken to her in years.” She admitted as she watched him carefully begin to make something out of nothing but scraps of what people would consider garbage. Seeming to find it as fascinating as he found her hard light to be.

“Betcha ‘Thena could foind ‘er number.” He pointed out.

“We never had a phone, they may have one now, but…” She began to nuzzle deeper into his chest, her voice becoming smaller and smaller as she explained that, “I left so long ago and never talked to them again, I never meant for it to happen, it just… _did_.”

“Tell ‘er tha’ then.” He said.

“What if she’s angry at me for not contacting them for so long? What if she hates me? What if they all hate me? What if…?”

“Satya.” He called into her ear, her body stiffening as he carefully placed the new accessory he’d turned her flower into into her hands before giving her a kiss on the forehead. He then gently pulled her into his lap and quietly wrapped himself around her and clasped her hands in his, “They’d havta be crazy not ta wanna talk ta ya. Hell ‘_m_ crazy, ‘n I wanna talk ta ya as much as I can.”

“You are _not_ crazy.” She told him, her head resting in the crook of his neck, “You are a very sweet, smart and_ eccentric_ man, but you are _not _crazy.” She sucked in a breath and pulled her hands away to pull her phone out of her pocket, “Would you mind being a comfort as well while I try to find if they’ve gotten a phone since I last saw them?”

He chuckled and wrapped his arms around her middle, his phone in hand, “Not at all, Luv, not at all. But ‘ere, use moine. They can’ track calls from moine.” She took it carefully from him and gave him a grateful smile, “Thank you, Jamie.”

“No worries! I mean, what koind of secret boyfriend would I be if I left ya hangin’?”

“A better kept one.” She said flatly, then gave him a kiss on the cheek, “But I am grateful that you are here with me right now.”

“Wouldn’ be nowhere else, Luv.” He murmured, wrapping himself around her as she looked up to the ceiling, “Athena, can you search for phone numbers registered in Hyderabad?”

“I can. Who are you looking for phone numbers for, Agent Symmetra?”

Junkrat cupped her hands with his, their little accessory sparkling in the light, his arms wrapped around her in a comforting hug. She closed her eyes, sucked in a breath and began listing names.

He spent the rest of the day holding her close as she talked to her family, listening to her speak rapidly in her mother tongue while fiddling with the accessory they had made together. When she finally hung up, she then happily reported everything she’d learned to him, telling him that her family was so proud of her, how her brothers had actually gotten married in one of the first buildings she’d designed, how the hospital she had designed last year had been where her new nephew had been born. (She then happily showed him pictures of both the weddings and the baby via a blog her sister-in-law had) How her family had pictures of her work, clippings of her interviews and the magazine covers she’d done all over their refrigerator, how they were amazed that she was working with Overwatch, and how happy her mother was that she had not only made friends who truly loved and accepted her, but that she was treated so well and treasured just as much as they believed she did. He smiled, glad to see how happy she was that her family was so proud and loved her so much, a small sickening thought in the back of his mind about how Vishkar kept her from them and how they probably planted those seeds of doubt about how her family may not love her anymore as a way to further excert control over her.

Yeah, next time they saw that bastard suit, he and Hog were probably gonna find a nice little secret place to slaughter the fucker and burn the body beyond recognition.

“I also told her that I was dating a certain someone and keeping it a secret from Vishkar.” She whispered, his thoughts going from aggravated murder plans to nervousness as he hoped that her family would be accepting of their relationship, for her sake at least. (Or to stick it to the company that kept her away from them, he was fine with either one.) As he understood that having a relationship with a Junker wasn’t something that most people would condone and that they, much like Vishkar only wanted the best for her. He wanted it too, that’s why he was doing his best to be the best he could be to her. While he had a feeling some other bloke, or hell, even a sheila could probably do better than he could, he doubted anyone on this planet wanted to make her happier than he did, even her family.

“’N?” he asked, anxious.

“She’s happy as long as I’m happy.” She said firmly, “But she is not going to tell my father until she can find a way to keep him from coming here to take me home.”

“Get Molls on th’ phone with ‘er.” He teased, “Tha’ should be enough.”

“Not Roadhog?” she chuckled.

“Nope. He’d tell ‘er th’ truth.” He said, making her laugh even harder.

“You are happy with me, aren’ ya?” He asked, silently praying to any diety he could again, pleading that they’d continue to have Molly’s birthday wish come true and grant them happiness (they owed the kid that much at least for all the other crap they let happen to her and her siblings!).

She kissed the tip of his nose, making him giggle, “Blissful.”

“Glad ta hear it, Luv. Really, really glad.” He murmured softly into her hair before covering her in kisses, her giggles and playful protests music to his ears before exchanging soft kisses on the lips and cuddling until dinner time.

“Jamie?” she called as he escorted her out of her room.

“Yeah?”

“Molly was right, you are a very comfortable person to cuddle with.” She told him. He flushed, frozen for a moment before she started to tug him towards the mess hall by the hand, a wide grin on his face as he quickly caught up with her, their flesh fingers intertwined and the feeling of floating in mid air.

Huh, maybe heaven is everything he heard about and more as long as he’s with her.


	45. First death threat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hog tries to keep Molly from worrying too much about her impending playdate with Torb's family and Efi by suggesting a game of fetch with her, D.Va and Bob. But when the game suddenly goes sideways, a familiar face makes itself known and Molly doesn't really like what they have to say.

Roadhog watched Molly stare out the windows over his book, the little girl nervously fiddling with her fingers as she stared at the road, Bob lounging at her side, ready to report when Reinhardt, Torb and Brigitte were on their way back with their guests.

The plan was for all of them to come over tonight, tomorrow morning they’d pass out the surprise costumes and then that night would be the party and then they spend half of the next day here before heading back home.

Despite everyone’s best efforts to calm her down and give her tips about making new friends, she was still nervous about meeting the other children.

“Molly.” He called, motioning her close as he put his book down on a nearby table. She quickly scampered over towards him and he scooped her up and plopped her into his lap, gently taking her tiny hands in his, “There ain’ nothin’ ta be nervous ‘bout. All of ya are gonna have fun ‘n get along foine, I know it.”

She pouted, his heart breaking as he saw that she didn’t seem to believe him. What should he do to make her feel better? What_ could_ he do to make her feel better?

Then the answer hit him like a ton of bricks;

Maybe he should_ ask_ her how she _wanted_ him to help. After all, she seemed to know more about what she wanted than he did. And it wasn’t like he was the mind reader of the two of them, even if she was wearing her bracelet right now.

“Is there somethin’ I can do ta make you feel better?” he asked, surprising her.

“C-can I jus’ stay with you a while?” She asked softly, “Please?”

“’Course, Luv.” He said, bouncing her a bit in his arms, a smile budding on her face, “How ‘bout a noice game of catch with Zarya’s present? Bet Bob’d loike tha’ too.”

Bob immediately popped up, as if to say, ‘Hell yes, fetch please!’

He made his way to Molly’s room, Bob right at his heels, stopping for a moment as Orisa excitedly passed, something cradled in her massive metal arms, “Thank you again, Agent Song! I can’t wait for tomorrow night!” She stopped when she saw them, “Oh, excuse me, Agent Roadhog, Molly and Bob! I didn’t see you there!”

“Whatcha got there?” He asked her.

“Oh, Agent Song has begun passing out costumes today instead of tomorrow morning, since they need to make sure everything fits!” She informed him, tilting her head and giving him a smile, “You’ll love yours, Agent Roadhog! Everyone worked really hard on it!” she insisted before she left, calling out to Athena to let her know when Efi arrived, obviously excited to show off her costume as soon as she could.

He looked up to his daughter, “Should I head over there too?”

“Yeah!” She blurted, then paused, as if the thought that he might not like it crossed her mind, but before she could say anymore, he was already walking towards Pipsqueak’s room, passing Mei, Pharah and Hanzo on his way there, each of them holding a box of their own.

Her door was open and he poked his head in the doorway, “Pipsqueak?” He called.

“It’s about time you showed up.” She said, opening it fully and making him jerk backwards a bit as she shoved a box for him to hold into his Molly-less hand, “This is Molly’s and Bob’s, yours is back at the workshop, ask Rat for it when you get there…”

“Actually…” He said, “Can I drop this off in ‘er room ‘n we can try ‘um on later?”

“We’re gonna play fetch with Bob!” Molly explained for him.

Hana seemed surprised and a bit put out that the surprise that she’d been teasing all those who weren’t involved in the making of the costumes for a while now was less important than a game of fetch! But when she looked down at the pup, she couldn’t hold back the smile at how excited he looked, his stubby tail wagging so hard, his rump seemed to have trouble keeping up, the panting, the tongue lolling out of his mouth in excitement…

Who could say no to that?

“Only if I get to join you.” She said before stepping out into the hallway with them, “Angela said I should try to get some more fresh air when we have down time, and I could use a break.” She said stretching a bit as she joined them in the hall, closing her door behind her.

“Foine by us, we were gonna pick up Zarya’s present ‘n then head outsoide.”

“Then I am _definitely _coming with you! I’ve wanted to give that thing a shot ever since I saw it!” The tiny pro-gamer declared as she then grabbed him by the belt and attempted to drag him to Molly’s room…

Only to yelp when she remembered that he was not so easily moved and nearly fell onto her rear. He chuckled as Molly scooted over and he scooped the tiny Korean to join his little girl in his arms. Hana’s eyes widening for a moment before letting out a squeak as he moved towards Molly’s room, wondering if it was a good idea or not to ask if she was eating enough. The kid was so fucking light…

Then again, Rat was too when he wasn’t wearing his R.I.P tire…

He had Athena open the door and he carefully placed the box inside before placing both girls down and letting Molly collect the gun and several loose tennis balls on the floor and plop them inside, Hana helping her collect the balls and happily tossing one towards Bob, who was ecstatic as he caught it, his tail going so fast Hog was worried that the pup would have a sore ass after all this.

After they collected enough, they headed to the nearest exit with Bob racing off in the lead and Molly and Hana right behind him, calling for him to wait up, not that the mutt listened. He chuckled as he followed them, watching them follow the pup as he waddled towards the nearest exit, impressed with the speed he had with only three legs and his butt was still wagging with his tail.

Once outside, the girls began taking turns shooting tennis balls out for Bob to race after, he chuckled as he watched them have fun, even pulled out his phone and recorded them playing. It was dawning on him just how much Pipsqueak had rubbed off on him for him to record them playing with Bob on his phone when he heard the sound of an engine and tires on the road and ended the recording.

He turned to see two vans pull up Reinhardt manage to slide himself out of Angela’s van, Torb already out and opening the door and holding out his hand for a kind looking blonde woman, who smiled lovingly at him as she took it.

He felt his jaw drop.

** _ THAT _ ** _ was Torb’s WIFE?!_

Fair Dinkum, the man had done well for himself! He made a mental note to ask how the hell he’d managed to do that as Torb’s wife noticed him starring and, without a single moment of fear or dread, gave him a smile and a friendly wave. He barely managed to return the gesture, quickly realizing that she probably couldn’t see the smile from under his mask.

But, then again, considering his shock and his general appearance, it was probably for the best in that regard. Brigitte climbed out of the second van and waved at him too, “Where’s Molly?” she called.

He turned and pointed to the two youngest human females in Overwatch, Molly holding her gun and was getting ready to fire with Bob hopping excitedly at her feet. Hana realized the other’s return before she did, and quickly waved at them before informing his daughter that they were back, the gun tilting away from her intended target area as she looked over to confirm the information with her own eyes.

Molly’s face paled and she seemed to involuntarily pull the trigger at the sight, launching the ball towards the edge of the cliffs, Bob bounding blindly after it.

“BOB!” she cried, racing after him with Hana right behind.

Hog felt his stomach twist as he ran after them, pulling at his hook as he watched the ball bounce off the edge, Bob finally noticing the cliff edge and skidding to a stop the best he could, tripping over himself and nearly tumbling over after it but somehow managing to claw at the ground and keep himself from falling off with his front paws and quickly managed to skidder back up the ledge with his back paw.

The poor pup was curled up by the edge, whining pitifully as Molly and Hana made it to him. Molly quickly pulling him into a hug and murmuring something into his fur, her whole body shaking along with his as she held her dog tightly.

Hana glanced over the edge and he watched her expression go from curious as to where the ball landed to concerned as she grabbed at both of them with one arm and began frantically dragging them away from the edge, a blood chilling sound of metal against stone finally reaching his ears. Hana looked towards him, her eyes wide with panic as well as a tiny bit of relief that he was right there, she called out for him, holding out one hand as she cried out, “HOG!”

He may not be the mind reader of the three Junkers, but he really didn’t need to be to understand that she needed him to throw his hook. He did, feeling relieved when he saw Hana grab it and felt the weight at the end of it as he yanked them away from the edge as something sharp and metallic flew into the air and landed where they had been standing with a loud thud before it slid back towards the cliff a bit as the sound of clanking metal on rock began to come closer.

“GET EVERYONE INSOIDE, NOW!!” He bellowed back to the others as he caught the three most likely very traumatized little ones. Reinhardt ran towards him and he passed them to him before the German giant dashed off with them back towards the others being ushered inside.

“DADDY!” Molly cried, reaching for him.

He watched his little girl cry out for him for less than a heartbreaking second before turning back to the issue at hand;

The mechanical menace that was climbing up the cliff.

He heard a window open and saw in the foggy peripherals of the goggles of his mask that Rat leapt out of it, several grenades strapped to his chest as he ran towards him as the metal mystery continued to climb up the cliff. He nearly made a comment about using the damn door, but all things considering, hopping out the window was probably the least flashiest entrances/exits Rat had ever made and he was glad that speed was the important thing here instead of showing off and dealing with a bitching Morrison later.

“What are we lookin’ at ‘ere, Hog?” Rat asked.

“Dunno.” He replied, his voice dark with anger, “But it almost cut Molly, Bob ‘n Pipsqueak.”

“Tha’s all I needed ta hear.” Rat growled, pulling a grenade off his chest and walking towards the edge as he pulled the pin and peering down.

To his shock, his partner in crime made a face and quickly started swearing as he tossed the grenade not _down_ at the incoming metal monster, but somewhere out in the ocean where it blasted uselessly in the water.

“RAT!” He cried, “TH’ _FUCK_?!”

“IT’S WRECKIN’ BALL!” He called back.

Wrecking Ball. Rat’s favorite MEKA fighter back when they were in Junkertown.

A small moment from when he and Rat were teaching Pipsqueak about MEKA Fights crossed his mind. When Rat explained how his favorite fighter was Wrecking Ball and told her, Molly and Bob about how no one knew what he looked like since no one ever saw him outside his MEKA and stayed shacked up in Queenie’s place until he had a match. He stopped halfway through his speculation on why Queenie let him stay with her when he noticed the Pro-Gamer pouting.

“’Course, I’ve got a new favorite MEKA fighter now.” He said, ruffling her hair.

“Yeah!” Molly agreed, “You could totally beat Wreckin’ Ball!”

“Th’ only reason we haven’ taken ya there ta prove you could kick all their arses is if we go anywhere near Junkertown, we’ll be shot on soight.” Hog said.

The title and compliments appeased her and she told them straight up she’d happily take on any of those other pilots if they ever showed up.

How he wished that little girl had not jinxed them.

The MEKA pilots of Junkertown were some of the most well respected citizens, the Queen herself an ex-champion back when Junkertown was still freshly made from scrap, sweat and stolen shite. They were some of the tougher fighters they had and even he and Cheshire’d had a hard time taking on Queenie’s replacement as champion way back when he had to bust her ass out. They had managed, but every time a new Champion rose, Hog’s confidence that he could help Cheshire if she pissed Queenie to the point where she’d send the new champ after her waned.

And it wasn’t just because they were getting too old for that kinda shite.

Over the years, the younger citizens had become better at theft, and would bring back more advanced tech than the last generation had managed to snag. Wrecking Balls’ MEKA was the most advanced one they had in the Outback last time he checked. And as advanced as Hana’s was, he doubted she’d ever fought another MEKA pilot before, while Wrecking Ball had fought MEKA pilots for years and had always won. Last time he and Rat went to a fight, the bloke had armed himself with a updated grappling claw, and fancy glowy shields similar to Symmetra’s, Zarya’s and Reinhardt’s. The damn thing could roll you over or crush you like an actual wrecking ball could and had pretty powerful cannons. But what worried him the most was the reason he was Rat’s favorite;

He had mines.

Lots of them.

He’d spread them out around the arena and watch his challengers try to dodge his shots while avoiding his mines and often fell victim to one or the other.

If any of the kids here accidently stepped on one of those…

“TH’ FUCK IS QUEENIE’S PET DOIN’ OUT ‘ERE?!” He roared, furious at the thought of Queenie’s favorite fuck boy come to hunt them down, especially since there were so many kids around today…

“TH’ FUCK SHOULD I KNOW?!” He shouted back, “I AIN’ TH’ BLOODY MOIND READER!!”

“IF ‘E’S OUT ‘ERE, THEN QUEENIE PROBL’Y SEND ‘IM, YA DRONGO!!” He shouted angrily.

“BUT WHY WOULD SHE SEND ‘IM ‘ERE _NOW_?!” Rat countered.

Hog frowned, that was a good question. Why now?

But before he could fathom the answer, Rat let out another stream of swears as he backed away as the round mech finally climbed over the edge on various long metal… tentacles? He guessed. He didn’t exactly know or care about the specific technical term for whatever it was right now.

But what was surprising was Wrecking Ball was holding the tennis ball that had fallen off the edge and held it out to Rat.

The one eyed MEKA suddenly erupted into odd squeaking sounds before a robotic voice said, “Annoyance detected. Please don’t throw things at others.”

“We didn’ know you were there ‘til ya nearly crushed me noiece ‘n ‘er pup ‘n our mate with yer claw.” Rat said as he held out his hand and the robotic claw carefully dropped it into his palm, “Seriously, Mate, if ‘er Da’ don’ kill ya.” He said, thumbing to Hog to indicate who exactly the father was, “Then ‘er Mum will.”

The mechanical eye widened and the round metal body moved closer to Rat, much to his discomfort as more squeaking came from the MEKA before the robotic voice said, “I was not aware anyone was interested in either you or your bodyguard for anything other than the honor of presenting your dead bodies and your stolen treasure to the Queen. Let alone that someone would ever want to have a child with one of you.”

Hog snarled and pulled out his gun, famous Champ or not, those were fighting words and he sure as hell was not going to let some bloke in a metal bowling ball talk shite about him or his pyromaniac pal or Cheshire right to their faces like that and fucking live.

Rat’s face contorted with anger for a moment before a devious smirk crawled up his features, “Oh, yer gonna regret tha’ one, mate.” He purred darkly.

The metallic eye narrowed and squeaks bounced around the MEKA before the robotic voice asked, “What are you going to do? Send your bodyguard after me?”

“Nah, worse.” He said lightly before turning around and saying, “Be back in a tick!” Pausing when he saw the discarded tennis ball gun and picked it up before heading towards where he’d last seen his little girl…

Oh…

OH…

Hog wasn’t sure if he wanted to give Rat praise or a smack to the back of the head for his idea, but at the same time, he knew his friend would take precautions.

After all, an eight-year-old verses a Champion MEKA fighter was not something most parents would probably encourage. Honestly, even the craziest Junkers would never even consider the thought.

But then again, his best mate was no ordinary crazy Junker and his little girl was no ordinary eight-year-old.

The sound of loud squeaking jolted him from his thoughts, although he was experienced enough not to flinch or react in a way that would show surprise or weakness as he turned to the MEKA, he was still annoyed to see it’s eye inches from his face.

“Hello.” It said.

Okay, no. He did _not_ like this. He placed the barrel of his gun to it’s eye.

“_Back. Off._” He growled.

The MEKA complied, the round body seeming to tilt, as if in curiosity as more squeaking filled the air, the robotic voice rang out not too long after, “Does Cheshire know about this child of yours, Roadhog?”

This _fucking slagger_…

“She should.” He fibbed, hoping he could manage to fool the pilot inside into thinking Cheshire knew about her own child. Last thing he needed was for Ches to find out about her own child existance from fucking _Queenie_ of all people, “It’s hers too.”

The squeaks had shifted into shrill shrieks that made him wince, “WHAT?!” The robotic voice cried right into his ear.

Hog placed a hand on the MEKA and shoved it backwards, annoyed at the high-pitched sounds and yelling as he did his best to not rub at his now ringing ear. The fuck was with all that squeaking and shrieking? You’d think some sort of rodent was in that thing or something!

Hell, for all he knew, maybe there was.

“Th’ fuck you doin’ way out ‘ere, anyways?” He finally asked, “Needed relationship advise or real foightin’ skills?”

The MEKA was silent before the robotic voice replied, “Fuck off.”

Hog let out a snort of amusement, it seemed as though he had struck a nerve.

Good.

And while he normally was one to keep Junkrat from hitting any nerve that could get him killed, it didn’t mean he didn’t enjoy watching the people he pissed off getting all riled up from time to time. Especially when the people they were riling was an asshole like this guy, he then started to chuckle.

“Irritation detected.” The MEKA said, confirming his theory about striking a nerve.

He hadn’t, however, considered the usual consequence that often followed when someone struck a nerve;

Violence.

He felt one of the metal claws yank on his holster, not that he even budged at the tug it gave, but the angry sounding squeaks and the robotic voice informed him that, “Be advised; laughing at Wrecking Ball is dangerous for one’s health.”

But before Hog could scoff and show him just how badly it would be for his health if he didn’t let go of him, he heard a gasp.

“DADDY!” Molly cried, horrified. Her violet eyes wide with concern and her cowlicks straight up on her head, the shield Brigitte had given her for her birthday on her arm and a snarling Bob at her heels. The two in a bubble like shield that he recalled was something that came from Zarya’s gun under a blue shield that was definitely made by Symmetra. Part of him was surprised that the old Knight and-slash-or his squire weren’t there with their shields out to defend her, but still, three good shields are a wonderful amount of protection.

Rat and Hana were right behind her, also shielded by the blue hardlight, Hana holding up her phone as Rat held up the sword Hanzo had given to Molly for her birthday (it was sheathed, thank Christ, but he could tell that she probably grabbed those things to try to help fight the metal ‘monster’ but he really didn’t want her taking that sword out until her teachers said she could move on from sticks to actual swords) and pointed it at Wrecking Ball, “See? Look at ‘im. Foirst ‘e says mean things ta me ‘n yer Da’. Then ‘e says bad things ‘bout yer Mum. ‘N now ‘e’s pickin’ on yer Dadhog.” He knelt down, an impish gleam in his amber eyes, “You gonna let ‘im get away with tha’?”

Molly’s expression went from worried and scared to angry and determined, her cowlicks looking like jagged lightning bolts on her head as she handed Rat something shiny, “Hold me bracelet, Rat.” She said sternly before stomping towards the two of them.

“Go get ‘um Molls!” Rat cheered with a laugh. Hana joining him as Bob followed her towards them, the look in his eyes telling Hog that ‘we’ve got this, just enjoy the show.’

Hog was an emotional mix of horrified, angry (at Rat), surprised, excited and proud as his little girl scowled up at Wrecking Ball, “You leave mah Da’ alone!” she shouted.

Okay, now he was just flat out proud and terrified about what was about to happen.

The MEKA let go of his hoslter and hovered above her, trying to scare her.

Not that it worked, she lived with plenty of people who were much bigger than her and a couple of bots, this bloke was a fucking drongo if he thought he was gonna intimidate her. Once the pilot of the MEKA realized that the little girl wasn’t scared nor would she budge, he silently decided to test just how tough she was, slicing into Hog’s arm, challenging her to, “Make me.”

The cut wasn’t deep or painful, but it did start to bleed immediately.

The horrified gasp that escaped his little girl’s lips made him wince far more than the wound did, but he doubted she’d believe that as her face contorted into a furious snarl and let out a loud, angry cry as she held up her hands as if she was holding a ball and began pressing her fingers towards her palms.

The sound of metal being crushed and alarms blaring made him turn to Wrecking Ball, deep imprints in the sides of the MEKA and he would swear he saw what looked like fingerprints in the imprints.

But those fingerprints didn’t stay for long as he heard the metal creak in protest as the imprints soon became massive dents in the metal, loud squeaking and the robotic voice crying out, “ERROR! ERROR! MASSIVE PRESSURE DETECTED! DANGER! DANGER!”

“Oh, I’ll show **you** _dangah_!!” Molly shouted as she began slowly moving her hands together, the MEKA suddenly being crushed into what he guessed was a tinier ball of metal, the squeaks frantic now as the robotic voice continued to call out about the error.

Hog should have been concerned. He should have told her to stop. He should have told her that he was fine, that she had nothing to worry about.

But all he could think was, ‘Awwww, her first death threat!’

She then looked up at him, her cheeks pink and her cowlicks more wobbily than they were before, “’M doin’ good, Da’?” She asked, her voice soft.

He smiled proudly at her before lowering himself closer to her level, “Yeah. But I also think tha’ yer good now.”

“But ‘e-!” She began, obviously not satisfied with the amount of punishment after the stranger in the MEKA hurt her Dadhog just to spite her.

“Molly, I don’ want you gettin’ ‘nother nose bleed.” He said sternly.

“Jus’ one more thing, then!” she pleaded, her violet eyes wide, “Please, Da’? _Pleaaasee_?”

… Christ, who the hell taught her how to beg better? He could already feel himself caving…

What had happened to him? He used to be able to say no without a single problem or giving a single fuck how it disappointed someone (usually Rat or Cheshire). But now, he was having a hard time telling a little girl, ‘no you may not continue to torture a grown man inside a metal ball by crushing him…’

Ugh, they didn’t put anything like _this_ in those stupid parenting books he’d bought!

“Foine. Jus’ one.” He relented with a sigh.

He felt tiny arms attempt to wrap around his neck in a hug, and a squeal of, “Thank you, Daddy!”

… Daw, okay, so maybe he could say yes every now and then.

But only to her. If he ever said that word to Rat or Ches, he’d have such a fucking headache…

He looked up to see that Rat and Pipsqueak were no longer the only ones watching, but the entire base and their guests were too, the adults suddenly looking concerned and Symmetra began weaving something while Brigitte, Reinhardt, Zarya, and Orisa pulled out their shields and placed them in front of the group.

What the…

He paused and turned around to see his daughter beaming as she held her hands high up in the air, as if holding something. Then, with her mother’s Cheshire grin on her face, she happily seemed to drop it.

He looked up and saw Wrecking Ball plummeting back down to Earth from however high Molly had held him before.

Note to self: Don’t say yes to your daughter until you are clear what she has in mind. She _is_ just as bad as her mother and Junkrat. _Don’t let the adorable wide-eyed pleading work on you!_

“Shite!” he cried as he scooped Molly and Bob into his arms and dashed for the others, Symmetra seeming to hold something back for a moment until he crossed the threshold and made it to the group before she flung out a massive shield and they all felt the rumble of the impact beneath their feet. The group struggled to stay upright and to keep the little ones safe from harm, everyone holding each other in odd fashions to keep each other upright.

“Perfect timin’ as always.” Rat cooed at his secret girlfriend as he kept her steady with his flesh hand on her hip, Symmetra seeming to calm down from the shock and even puffing up a bit at the praise as she smiled back at him.

He half expected Molly to pop up from his arms and cry out, “Again!” like she often did whenever she would watch Rat test his explosives, but instead she barely popped her head out and stared at the other children, petrified, her face pale and her cowlicks now wiggly and flat on her head.

It took a moment for Hog to understand why she looked so frightened;

Because she just revealed her strange and scary powers to children she didn’t really know and who came all this way to meet her to hopefully become her friends.

She buried her face into his arm, trembling, fearful of the incoming rejection that she believed would soon be flying her way.

“THAT WAS WICKED!!!” The smallest boy in the group cried out excitedly.

Molly poked her head out of his arm, confused.

He took that as his cue to gently place his daughter down on the ground along with her puppy, the younger children immediately swarming her and blurting out everything that seemed to come to their minds, Molly looking more than just a little overwhelmed by it all.

Rat poked at him and held out Molly’s bracelet to him, the small trinket hanging off a long finger.

Ah, that would explain some of it. He held out his hand and nodded, his pal taking that as his cue to let the bracelet slip off his finger and into his palm before hopping backwards to avoid accidently tripping over any of the little ones surrounding his best mate’s feet.

“Molly.” He called, holding her present out to her and watched her look at it, relieved.

“Thanks, Da’.” She said softly as he gently dropped it into her tiny hands and she put it back on, seeming to feel a little bit better after she did that.

“Hey, what’s your dog doin’?” A little girl asked as she pointed back towards the smoking wreckage of Wrecking Ball.

The rest of them looked over to see Bob facing away from them, growling at something they couldn’t see, a hush falling over them and allowing them to hear…

Squeaking?

“Bob?” Molly called as the others parted away enough for her to have a path to reach her pup. “Whatcha got there?” the girl asked as she bent over, curious, before her expression shifted into one of shock. She looked from the wreckage to the thing Bob had, then back, looking to her pup for guidance. After Bob gave her a nod, Hog could see her lower lip begin to wobble.

Uh oh…

Time for Daddy to intervene.

But before he had taken two steps, she wailed, “MY FIRST DEATH THREAT WAS TO A BLOODY HAMSTER!!!”

“What?” he managed along with the others as they all ran over to get a better look, and low and behold, Bob had a fairly fat hamster pinned under one paw, the damn thing squeaking like mad before Bob put more pressure on it and growled, silencing it. Molly leapt into Hog’s arms and started to cry, upset that her first death threat, which was supposed to be against the Feared Champion MEKA Fighter of Junkertown, was actually against a hamster.

“Huh…” Rat said as Hog stroked his daughter’s back and tried to do some damage control, “Guess us callin’ ‘im Queenie’s pet wasn’t too far off th’ mark…”


	46. a little fluff

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> a bit of fluff with spiders, honey talks and serenading babies.

After the shock of who Molly had threatened was over (and she had stopped crying thanks to her Dadhog’s efforts), Winston had revealed that he _knew _the hamster Bob had pinned to the ground, that they’d been friends back when they were on the moon. That the last time he’d seen him, it was after…

He stopped talking after that, his voice dying on his tongue before Molly nodded to her pup and Bob released him, the tiny creature dashing towards Winston, squeaking as Winston carefully scooped him up and the hamster hugged one of his fingers, even going as far to happily rub his face against it.

“Awww!” the other kids cried. Molly glared at it before asking her Dadhog to let her down and walked over to Winston pointing to the tiny creature hugging his finger, “You do anythin’ ta hurt Winston ‘n ’m shavin’ ya with me sword!” she threated it, making it let out a frantic shriek before curling into a shaking ball to hide behind Winston’s fingers.

Angela glanced over at Mako, smiling at the tears of pride she could see trickling down his cheeks through the goggles.

“Hammond won’t hurt me, Molly.” Winston had assured her, gently stroking ‘Hammond’s head with a finger, the tiny creature calming a bit at his touch.

“Pft! His name is Hammond? Hammond the hamster?” Jesse chuckled. Junkrat, Mei, Genji, Hana, Lúcio, Fareeha and Lena snickering along with him. Angela, Ana and Jack were able to keep their poker faces on and Satya, Zarya, Bastion, Orisa, Zenyatta and Hanzo looked as if it either wasn’t that funny or wondering why it was funny to everyone else. Reinhardt and Torb struggling to contain their laughter and be good influences to the children by not laughing at someone else’s name.

But it was too late, their guests were all giggling too.

Molly narrowed her eyes at him, “’E bettah not!” She snarled before Hana grabbed her arm and began tugging her back to the other kids, insisting that there was no need to fight anymore and now she should introduce herself. Winston taking this as his cue to take his old friend inside with him to catch up as well as to discuss how him insulting anyone here like he had would _not_ be tolerated.

Meanwhile, Junkrat gently pushed Angela towards Mako, asking if she wouldn’t mind patching him up and indicated the still bleeding cut on his arm.

Angela nodded and looked up at the injured man, who sighed and motioned for her to lead the way without even bothering to argue.

It wasn’t something that people often took the time to notice, but Mako ‘Roadhog’ Rutledge was a very wise man in this regard.

“Bob, you go with Da’ ta make sure ‘e’s ‘roight!” Molly called as Hana dragged her away from her Daddy. Bob let out a bark and hopped over to the two of them, Angela stopping for a moment to gently scratch behind his ears and murmur a few compliments to him before they made their way towards the door.

Mako stopped in the doorway to watch as Molly nervously introduced herself and was quickly bombarded with questions, Efi and a blonde boy Angela recognized to be Oscar (it had been a few years since she’d last seen him and it seemed as though puberty was on it’s way) quickly began to get the other children to settle down so she could answer their questions properly.

She then whispered that they should head inside before they let bugs in.

“So?” He grumbled, obviously wanting to watch his little girl make friends.

“Do you want to deal with Hana, Zarya, Hanzo or Mei shrieking at two in the morning because of a spider again?” She asked him.

“…No.” He relented before finally closing the door and following her duly to her office, “… I did think it was funny when McCree tricked Hanzo inta thinkin’ he was chasin’ ‘im with tha’ big one…”

Angela let out a snort at the memory.

After Mei had let out an ear-piercing scream at two in the morning last week, Hana had ran over to see what was the matter with Zarya, only for them to began yelling as well.

Angela and Satya quickly followed after them into the room, and while it wasn’t something she liked to admit, she had bit back a scream at the sight of the ENORMOUS spider on the floor in front of her. Satya simply paled and murmured something nervously in her native tongue as she began weaving a jar to capture it in, her hands shaking a bit as she worked.

Molly poked her head in with Bob, holding her sheathed sword and asked, “What’s goin’ on?!”

“_Spider_!” Zarya cried, holding Mei and Hana in her arms as they cowered together on the bed, pointing to the giant spider on the floor.

“Wow! It’s a Gibraltar funnel-web spoider!” she cried as the rest of the gang began to appear in the doorway, armed to the teeth.

“A what?” Satya asked.

“It’s a huge spoider tha’s native ta ‘ere, Bastion ‘n me have seen it a few toimes, but ‘e never let me near ‘um ‘cause he didn’ know if th’ venom was deadly ta humans or not.”

“It’s _poisonous_?!” Mei cried, Hana’s shivering becoming more intense at the knowledge and Zarya held the other two closer to her, fearful. Bob then began to tug on the bottom of Molly’s pajama pants, obviously to create more distance between her and it.

“Yup. But don’ worry, I’ll get it…” she said, ignoring her pup’s efforts to keep her safe as she took a step forward, Bob whining as she did so.

“Molly, if you even _think_ about touching that venomous spider, you are _grounded_!” Angela blurted without thinking, the sound making the spider jerk a bit and rear onto it’s hind legs, making the other girls in the room let out yelps while Bob growled defensively at it. As for Molly, she seemed to be struggling with the term ‘grounded’ for a moment before admitting that, “…I dunno what tha’ means.”

“It means you’re in big trouble.” Fareeha told her from her spot in the doorway.

“I was gonna use th’ jar ‘Metra’s makin’ ta get it. Wasn’ gonna touch it, especially since it’s scared…”

“_It’s_ scared?!” Hana yelped, the spider turning to them and hissing, the three on the bed, curling closer together out of fear.

“Well, yeah, how would you feel if you were surrounded by really big loud things tha’ could crush ya ta death without much trouble?” she asked as Satya handed her the jar and a specially made lid that resembled a flower, “So you can slide it under the spider and then push the sides over the jar to close it. It will make it easier to capture it safely.”

“Ta!” Molly said, before she bent down by it, and it reared it’s front legs at her, a small spark of protective maternal nature light up in Angela’s belly at the sight of it and Bob’s growls getting louder and fiercer.

If that furry, eight-legged freak so much as took one tiny aggressive step closer to Molly, she’d crush the damn thing under her socked foot, gift ist verdammt!

But the maternal fire was then cooled enough to simply warm her blood stream as she watched Molly coo, “It’s okay. I ain’ gonna hurt ya. I jus’ wanna get you outsoide where ya won’ get hurt.”

The spider stopped hissing for a moment, staring at her, “’M gonna put you in this.” She said, holding up the jar for it, “this way we’ll all be safe from each othah.” She then squeezed it for good measure. When the spider saw that the jar didn’t budge from her efforts, it finally got back down on all eight legs. Molly put the lid on the ground, “’Ere, stand on this.”

She managed to get the spider on the lid, carefully snapped it into place and picked it up of the ground, “Okay, let’s get ya outsoide!”

The group parted for her, Bob right behind her, ready to step in if the spider somehow escaped. Some winced at the size of the spider, like Hanzo, others admiring it, like Jesse. Winston in particular asked her to wait a moment, wanting to get a better look at it, “Yup, definitely a Gibraltar Funnel Web Spider. Excellent classification, Molly.” She beamed a bit at his praise.

“How can ya tell?” Jesse asked, peeking inside the jar.

“The size for one thing.” Winston informed him, “This species is closely related to tartantulas, so they are quite big.” Jesse glanced back at a shaking Hanzo and an impish Genji, the two exchanging a look Angela knew would mean trouble.

“Oh, really?” He asked, a smirk on his lips as he carefully took the jar from Winston and held it up towards the light of the hallway to see it better, “Say Molly, ya wouldn’t mind if I tested yer knowledge on this little guy?”

“Bring it!” Molly cried, pleased that she could share what she learned in her lessons with someone other than Orisa and began listing creepy spider fact after creepy spider fact, Hanzo practically quaking as Jesse edged closer and Genji nudged him closer before he let out a surprisingly high pitched cry and ran for it.

Jesse nearly gave chase before Molly stepped in front of him, her cowlicks like little lightning bolts and a stern scowl on her face, “I said I’d let th’ spoider outsoide. Don’ make me a loiar. Get ‘nother jar from ‘Metra ‘n chase ‘im with tha’.” She said darkly.

Jesse seemed surprised by the frightening figure Molly managed to make herself, before chuckling and handing her the jar, “You really are Hog’s kid. Scary, straight forward ‘n damn clever.” He said, his voice full of praise as he gently ruffled her hair and smiled broadly as Satya handed him a new jar and the gang all watched as Jesse and Genji dashed off to film their mad chase around the base after quickly getting a good shot of the spider with his phone before the two ran off to film Jesse chasing Hanzo with an empty jar.

‘Speaking of jars…’ she thought as she snapped her out of her flashback right outside the door to her office. She quickly opened the door and started up her machines (because healing Mako’s wound would come first here) before she glanced over to the pink hibiscus in the jar on her desk and frowned, the water was low and murky and the flower didn’t look too good. She quickly refilled the jar and hoped the flower would perk back up with the new water, but somehow doubted it.

“Where’d ya get tha’?” Mako asked as he took his usual spot on the bed with the crushed side and pulled Bob into his lap with his good arm and began rubbing him behind the ears, making the pup’s raggedy tail wag with fervor.

“Molly gave it to me.” She said, “I should have refreshed the water yesterday, but I forgot…” She felt a small pain in her chest as she looked at the slightly wilted flower.

“Molls loikes poickin’ flowers, if it don’ make it ta tomorrow, she ‘n Bastion can take th’ other kids out ta go pick more.” He said, his voice soft, as if trying to comfort her.

“I know, it’s just… It was so sweet of her to give it to me and I should have taken better care of it…”

“When did she give ya tha’?” He asked.

She felt her cheeks heat up, “Not too long after… Well…” she pointed to the jar with a finger, the heat in her cheeks burning the rest of her face as the words settled between them.

She saw his ears turn pink along with his visible face, “Ah…” He managed, then said, “I ‘member ‘er grabbin’ a flower loike tha’ th’ day she decided ta boost me confidence ‘n put flowers in me hair…”

“When you ‘gave more leg, Hoggy’?” She offered with a chuckle as she walked over to him, a tray with everything she’d need to clean his wound before healing it, after all, who knows what that MEKA’s claws had been contaminated with before scratching him like that.

He shrugged, obviously pleased with himself, “Ain’ one ta deny a lady’s _reasonable_ request.” He practically purred as he held out his arm and she began cleaning the wound, carefully wiping away at the wound with a damp cotton ball in her pinched fingers.

“Are you talking about your daughter or Hana’s?” She teased as she used a cloth to wipe away the lingering moisture and begin healing the wound with her nanobiotics.

“Both.” He said, then explained that, “They’re good kids, don’ moind helpin’ them out as long as I know they’re not gonna get themselves inta a heap of trouble. I deal with enough of tha’ with Rat.”

She laughed as he then told her about some of times Junkrat had done just that in Sydney not too long after they left Junkertown, and when Mako learned that Junkrat knew very little of life _outside_ of Junkertown. The two chatting and joking as the red gash on his arm shrank into a red line, then a pink one, then the white of fresh scar tissue. Bob barked at them, as if saying, ‘He’s all good now.’ She looked down to see that the white line was softening and she smiled and turned off her machines. She had just finished putting her machines away when she heard a ding coming from his and her phones. Mako checked his and he smiled warmly as Molly’s voice came from it, “I-I can hold ‘er?”

“Her mother wouldn’t have asked if she didn’t mean it.” Ingrid’s warm, soft voice replied, “Here, let me show you how to keep your arms…”

Angela leaned over so she could peek at his screen, seeing Molly holding a sleeping baby with Ingrid right beside her, “She’s so toiny…” she said, amazed at the little life in her arms as people chuckled around her, the baby starting to stir and fuss in her arms at the sounds.

“’M sorry!” she blurted as the baby began to wail, “I didn’ mean ta-!”

“Molly.” Ingrid said softly as she gently moved her arms back and forth, helping her rock the baby, “What does your Papa do when you wake up and you are upset?”

“Tha’ really depends.” She replied sheepishly, “But usually ‘e makes me Milo ‘n sings ta me.”

“Well, I don’t know about how she’d like the ‘Milo’.” Ingrid chuckled, “but you can try singing to her. She likes that.”

“Any song is okay?” Molly asked, shaking a bit.

“I’m sure whatever you have in mind is fine.” Ingrid assured her.

“O-okay…” she said nervously, taking in a shaky breath for a moment before softly singing, “I’ve ‘round th’ world a coupl’a toimes or maybe more…”

The baby cried louder and Molly winced, looking to Ingrid for a chance to pass the baby off to her and run before she did anymore damage. But the old physical therapist instead motioned for her to keep going and gave her an encouraging smile. It didn’t seem to help much, but Molly looked down at the fussy baby in her arms, sucked in a breath and nervously continued, “I’ve seen th’ soights, I’ve had deloights on every foreign shore…” The baby let out another cry, quieter than the last one, but the sound still making her wince a bit, not liking the fact that her singing wasn’t the soothing serenade Ingrid had been expecting from her.

“You can do it, Molls.” Angela heard Mako breathe, the confidence in his voice making her breath catch a bit in her chest.

“But when my mates all ask ‘bout th’ place tha’ I adore, I tell ‘um roight away…” She sucked in a deep breath, the baby finally starting to calm down a bit to listen.

“Give me a home among th’ gum trees, with lots of plum trees.” She sang, “A sheep or two, a kangaroo. A clothes loine out th’ back, a verandah out th’ front ‘n an old rockin’ chair…” The baby then babbled curiously and began grabbing at Molly’s hair and face, making it harder for her to go on. The others chuckling and Ingrid helping remove the baby’s hands from her face and taking her off of her hands, “You did well, Molly.” She assured her.

“Knew she would.” Mako said softly, Angela’s heart melting a bit at the sound of his voice. It was so warm, so proud, so deep, so loving...

“It probl’y would’ve been better with th’ milo.” Molly murmured softly on the screen, rubbing her arm bashfully, “It’s chocolate ‘n milk, everyone loikes tha’.”

“DID YOU SAY CHOCOLATE MILK?!” A little girl’s voice cried from off screen, shushes coming from all around her as she apologized for making so much noise after Molly had _just_ managed to calm the baby down.

“It ain’ exactly…” Molly managed before she was yanked off screen for a moment as the camera quickly swiveled around to see the littlest Junker being dragged into the kitchen by a mob of children, Molly looking into the camera and holding out her hand, as if silently pleading for help before vanishing into the kitchen before the video ended.

Angela smiled at the message attached to the video, from Hana apparently, saying, “On a scale of 1 to 10, how proud of her are you right now? :3”

Mako texted back, “I’m always proud of her.”

Hana replied with a text saying, “BRB, gotta deal with the feels you just gave me! T-T”

Mako replied, “More like getting yourself some Milo.”

Hana sent back a snippy, “I can do two things at once. XP”

He snorted and sent back a, “Save some for us.” Before stuffing his phone back into his pocket. He then carefully scooped Bob up off his lap and placed him on the floor before looking at her, his gray eyes smiling, “Wanna get some Milo?”

Angela smiled back at him, her heart pounding and a fluttering feeling in her stomach as she replied, “That sounds lovely.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I commissioned a friend to do a comic of the 'Show more leg, Hoggie' incident, once she's done, I'll post it on here.


	47. Winston chapter: Packs and Punishments

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Winston and Hammond have a talk about the hamster's behavior before Hammond has to accept his punishment. And Bob's apparently Scottish?

Winston sucked in a frustrated breath and looked at his old friend. They’d spent a good hour or so going over what they’d been doing since they left, Hammond revealing that he not only managed to make a small pod to attach to the rocket he’d made to leave the moon, but he somehow’d picked up a slight accent while over in Australia for all these years. Although he did not discuss _why_ he simply hadn’t just worked on it with him and they could have left together without him breaking off his rocket and landing in Junkertown of all places, but Winston decided that would be a discussion for another time. As he would also have to address to what exactly happened before he saw Hammond and Molly’s showdown outside.

He’d viewed the entirety of the footage taken of Hammond in his MEKA (which, in Junkertown, stood for ‘Mechanical Exoskeleton Kickin’ Arse’), and he had to say, he was not at all happy with the way he’d spoken to the Junkers.

“Do I even want to know why you were randomly clinging to the edge of that cliff?” He huffed after the footage ended with Molly crying about how her first death threat was to a hamster, his tiny pal having the good sense to look a bit sheepish at his behavior back then.

‘I had jus’ strengthened th’ claws,’ Hammond squeaked, ‘Wanted ta see how good they were.’

“By clinging to the side of a cliff?” He replied dryily. The hamster shrugged, ‘It seemed loike a good idea at th’ toime. Many ideas seem stupid in hoindsoight.’

“Fair enough.” Winston conceded before saying that, “You realize that you’ve put me in a position where I cannot guarantee your safety or ability to stay here, right?”

Hammond’s body curled up into a ball on his desk before letting out the softest squeak, ‘Yeah...’

“So why in the name of all that is scientific made you believe that it was okay to say those kinds of things to them, especially when they had every right to be mad that you nearly hurt three of our own?!” Winston then asked. The tiny little furball was quiet, his little hands fidgeting a bit. He sighed and pulled out a bag of banana chips, peanut butter and a small baggy of sunflower seeds. He kept a small supply of them in his office whenever he missed his old friend and opened it before handing it over to him, and watching him slowly take the bag and pull one out with a soft nod in thanks.

“Please, Hammond. I want you to stay, but you need to work with me. Why would you talk to Junkrat or Roadhog like that? From everything Molly told me about Junkertown MEKA fights, I know for a fact you were Junkrat’s favorite.” Winston informed him, “So why treat someone who held you in high regard like that?”

‘Did either of those two tell ya tha’ they’re th’ only Junkers who have ‘shoot on soight’ posters everywhere ‘round Junkertown?’ Hammond inquired, picking at the shell of a sunflower seed, ‘Not even Cheshire, who got banished for violence has anythin’ loike tha’. Although tha’s more ‘cause anyone shootin’ at ‘er would be givin’ themselves a death sentence…’ he tacked on.

“I am well aware of that fact, they were both quite proud of themselves for how they managed that ‘high honor’ when we first discussed them joining.” He confirmed as he leaned back in his chair, opening the jar or peanut butter with his foot while he ripped the top of the bag of banana chips with his hands.

‘Their names are mud in Junkertown. Most of them hate them fer pissin’ th’ Queen off with all their bullshoite, I’d heard enough bad things ‘bout them tha’ I decided tha’ if I ever ran inta ‘um, I wouldn’ be noice.’ Hammond said simply.

“And how exactly did that work out for you?” Winston reminded him as he dipped a chip into the peanut butter, “Because I do believe there is a very special child in the building who is more than a bit miffed at your behavior today, and I honestly can’t blame her.” He pointed out before popping the chip into his mouth.

‘Oh yeah, what’s with tha’ ankle boiter? Nevah seen a kid not at least be intimidated by Wreckin’ Ball at tha’ distance.’ Hammond said as he finally opened the shell to retrieve the seed, ‘Let alone crush Wreckin’ Ball with tha’ much pressure…’ he paused and looked up at him, ‘How _did_ she do tha’?’

“A good portion of the people we have here are much bigger than her, including a few Omnics.” Winston pointed out as he dipped another chip into his peanut butter, Hammond not looking all too pleased that Winston wasn’t answering the important question. He sighed and tossed the chip into his mouth before tapping at his computer, swallowing before he asked Athena to pull up Molly’s data in a screen small enough for Hammond to access easily.

A tiny blue screen popped up, filled to the brim with data.

“She’s like us.” Winston said, “In a way. Never given a name in the lab, but a number. You were Subject eight, I was Subject twenty-six, and Molly was made to be a weapon they called zero-one-one, they refused to call her by the number itself fearing that they’d get attached to her if they called her by a single word. She gained the letter ‘M’ in front of it a few years ago, but she was still made and tested on in a lab.”

Hammond’s tiny dark eyes were wide as he stuffed half of the seed into his mouth and began searching through the data with his tiny fingers, eyes growing angry and his teeth slicing through the seed, he stuffed the piece he sliced off into his cheek while letting the rest of it drop, ‘She could’ve easily died from any of this.’ He commented, ‘compared ta all this, th’ uproisin’ on th’ moon was…’

“Don’t.” Winston said firmly, “Don’t compare them. A loss of life is horrible in general, don’t try to make it sound like one death is better or worse than the other.”

‘’M jus’ sayin’,’ he said, ‘At least th’ humans up there had quick deaths as far as we know.’

“Those people lost their lives, Hammond.” He said, starting to shake a bit, “They had families who still don’t know what happened to them, but I can’t tell them anything without being sure there are no survivors…”

Hammond looked at him, a bit of sympathy in his eyes, ‘Winston, ya can’ be… there’s no way…’

“YES THERE IS!” He roared, leaping to his feet, the jar sent spinning to the edge of his desk and the chips and lid sent scattering onto the floor, “Dr. Colleen had her baby while she was there! I know none of my fellow apes would even _think_ about harming a defenseless child! My mother would have torn any who dared to so much as scowl at that baby or her mother into bloody pieces!”

‘… I… I didn’ know tha’.’ Hammond admitted, ‘Never really paid much attention ta th’ humans, other than Dr. Winston…’ He looked up at him, ‘How did you…?’

“Dr. Colleen… is… was my mother’s favorite… she always let her touch her baby bump all she wanted and would happily put her hand over where the baby was kicking… she even asked her to help her come up with a name…” He found breathing to suddenly become difficult and sat back down, his heart in a painful vice, “My mother went to collect her and the baby as soon as she heard what the other adults had planned. I-I” he swallowed and Hammond gently patted his hand, ‘If yer mom’s got th’ baby, then th’ baby’ll be foine.’ He agreed, ‘Sorry for sayin’ otherwise.’

“You didn’t know.” He said softly, looking at a photo of him and Dr. Winston, regretting never being able to convince his mother to take a picture with him before he left, remembering how excited she was about the baby, ‘I can’t wait to meet the little one! I know you and that baby will become the best of friends!’ she’d said as she groomed him. There was no need to groom him, really, the insects up there were all contained, but his grandmother had groomed his mother when she was his age and she would do so for her own child, insects or no.

“I should try setting up communication and talk to her, we at least owe the families of those who did die to make sure…” he found his voice suddenly gone, leaving him unable to speak anymore of it.

‘I’ll help,’ Hammond offered as he handed him a banana chip.

“Thank you.” He breathed as he carefully took it from him, chewing quietly as he sucked in a few more breaths through his nose to fully calm down.

“We’ll start on that tomorrow,” he finally said, “In the mean time, we should find a way for you to apologize to the others. I doubt Molly’s going to let up on you otherwise.”

‘Yeah.’ He agreed, ‘Any ideas on how I can do tha’? Wreckin’ Ball had a translation feature I made, but I doubt I could get back in ta use it ta talk ta th’ humans ‘ere. I barely managed ta get out ‘fore she got Wreckin’ Ball off th’ ground ‘n I doubt tha’ fucked up mutt of hers would do me any favors.’

“Bob.” He corrected immediately. Because while he didn’t spend as much time with Bob as much as the others, he liked the dog’s company and he and Bob’d had a few very interesting conversations about the humans here when Molly would be reading selections he’d give her for her lessons and do some worksheets he’d type up for her. The two non-humans discussing how complicated the nearly hairless ones let their emotions get all tangled up to such an alarming point and how they just needed to stop worrying, let go and live a little.

‘You should take a load off too, Winston.’ Bob had advised, ‘Rest more, eat more, play more. Ah know you think tha’ because you started all this stuff up by yerself tha’ it’s your responsibility ta see everything through by yerself, but yer not alone. We’re a pack. You can trust everyone ‘ere ta help ya. Stop lockin’ yerself away in ‘ere ‘n take a day fer yerself, even Alphas need a break. Make some new friends, try new things, get a nice, long belly rub ‘n take a nap on the couch! Just don’ let yer goals isolate ya from th’ pack.’

‘What?’ Hammond squeaked, snapping him out of his flashback.

“Molly’s dog’s name is Bob, and please don’t call him that, you know the only reason he threatened you like that was because you threatened his pack first.” Winston said as he got up from his chair and began cleaning up the fallen chips, “Just because your species doesn’t live in packs doesn’t mean that you don’t understand the risks of threatening the safety of a member of one.”

Hammond let out a little sigh before picking up the rest of the sunflower seed, ‘Ya got me there, but still, I don’ loike bein’ pinned ta th’ ground while some Pommy mutt threatens ta whack me against th’ ground loike a rag doll until I stop movin’ ‘n shut up.’ He pointed out before stuffing the rest of the seed in his mouth.

“I doubt anyone would.” Winston agreed as he decided not to ask how the Dog’s accent was more British than Scottish (since he didn’t know enough dogs from either place to say which area’s dogs had similar accents to Bob’s) and tossed the fallen chips into the trash before picked up the fallen jar and starting a search for the lid. He then recalled how many of the others believed that he spoke much like they did, he and Molly seemed to be the only ones to pick up that he actually had a bit of a Scottish accent.

“Molly could probably understand you if she took off her bracelet.” Winston informed him, “But we’d probably have to get her away from our guests for her to hear you properly, it’s probably because we have so many people here that she had no idea that you managed to escape before she lifted your MEKA in the first place. But I doubt getting her away from them would be an easy task. Especially since the main reason our guests are here is to help her learn how to socialize with other children.”

‘Socializin’ is critical, no matter th’ species.’ Hammond agreed before suggesting that, ‘I could write ‘er a note, but I doubt she’d accept it.’

“Who said you only had to apologize to her?” Winston asked, smiling as he finally spotted a peanut butter lid (if it was the one that went flying off earlier, he had no idea, a lid is a lid is a lid) before picking it up and getting back into his chair, forcing his face to be stern as possible he told his old friend that, “You said that no one would want Junkrat and Roadhog as any more then corpses to confirm their deaths. Here in Overwatch, we are family, or, as Bob would say, a pack. Junkrat and Roadhog long since proved their loyalty and desire to turn over a new leaf and work with us. If we were on a battlefield and I heard you say that, I would gladly have taken you down to the best of my abilities, I have no doubts the others would as well.”

‘So why didn’ ‘e?’ Hammond asked, ‘Junkrat, I mean. I know tha’ bloke’s crazy ‘n tha’ Roadhog’s always up for a fight…’

“Actually, Junkrat isn’t nearly as insane as the news outlets would have you believe and he’s actually far smarter than most give him credit for as well.” Winston said, “ As for Roadhog, he is more than happy to sit around and read books, eat snacks, drink tea and play with his daughter all day, and while I have seen them be crazy and happy in a fight, they are very careful and thoughtful when it comes to the rest of us. As for your question, as I’ve said before, Junkrat was a big fan of your time as a Champion in Junkertown’s MEKA fights. He probably knew most of your moves based on your time in those fights and decided that it would be foolish for he and Roadhog to try to take you on by the cliff with so many innocent bystanders nearby. He probably figured it out that the only one who could probably take you down quickly and without risking our guests was Molly.” He then smiled down at his friend, “You can’t say he wasn’t wrong.”

‘Still say ‘e’s crazy.’ Hammond said as he chewed.

Winston shook his head, “Crazy or not, you were in the wrong here and you do owe him and everyone else here an apology.” He leaned back in his chair and helped himself to more of his snack, his eyes closed as he tried to think of a way to help his old friend make peace.

He then remembered something. He got up and turned to a cardboard box Hana had shoved into his face earlier, telling him to let her know if his costume didn’t fit.

He smiled and looked down at the hamster gnawing at another seed, “I think I know how we can get the others to forgive you, come on.” He said, holding out his hand for him to climb up.

‘But they still can’ understand me.’ Hammond pointed out, the shell of the seed cracked in his tiny hands.

“I’ll translate.” He said, “You trust me?”

Hammond nodded with a mouthful of seed and scampered up his hand and sat in his palm as Winston closed the bag and the peanut butter and asked Athena to tell him where the others were.

“The others are in the mess hall, drinking Milo.” She informed him.

“Thank you, Athena.” He said gratefully as he made his way down there.

‘Still can’ believe you made yerself a virtual girlfriend.’ Hammond teased, making Winston’s cheeks immediately warm, “Virtual-!” he blurted, his old friend laughing on his palm. Winston did care for Athena, he truly did, she was a good friend and very helpful in keeping him from spending all his time just trying to get the UN to end the PETRAs act alone. That and he did make her himself, he was proud of her skills and how she had grown since she first was programmed.

“Athena is like a daughter to me!” He growled, embarrassed.

‘Yeah, sure, mate!’ Hammond snickered.

That was it, he was going to approve of every embarrassing thing the others demanded of Hammond to show how sorry he was.

‘So what exactly is th’ plan ‘ere?’ Hammond asked when he finally calmed down.

“Several of our people have been making costumes for a party tomorrow night, if you allow them to make you whatever costume they agree on, that might be a good peace offering for them.”

‘’N if tha’ don’ work?’

“If worse comes to worse, you just might have to prove yourself to everyone.”

‘Tha’ could take a while with Wreckin’ Ball in such bad shape.’ Hammond said thoughtfully.

“We do have good engineers.” Winston reminded him, “And I’m sure Junkrat would be happy to help you make new mines.” He said, recalling what Molly had told him about his MEKA.

‘Not so sure if tha’s a good thing.’ Hammond commented.

“Hammond, you can’t expect them to trust you if you refuse to trust them.” Winston said sternly, “I trust everyone here with my life, I’d like it if you’d at least trust me that they’re all good people who you can count on.”

Hammond was silent for a few seconds before letting out a sigh, ‘Foine, you win. I’ll work on me trust issues.’

“Thank you.” He said as they reached the mess hall doors and opened it to a room filled with chatter and people.

Winston walked in and watched as Bob walked up to him, “Hello Bob.”

‘Good ta see yer out of th’ lab, Winston. Like Ah said, even Alphas need a break.” He said, pleased to see him out of the lab, he then looked up at his hand, ‘Ah’ll guess tha’ _someone_’s ready ta apologize fer bein’ a fuckin’ prick earlier?’

Hammond scowled and looked down at the dog, miffed at how pleased he looked before replying with a, ‘I will if you will fer pinnin’ me down!’

‘’Course, but yer apology ta th’ humans comes first.’ He said coolly, ‘Ah am a bit curious as ta how you’ll manage tha’ without yer fancy robot suit helpin’ ya.’

‘MEKA!’ Hammond corrected.

‘Same difference.’ Bob dismissed.

“Alright.” Winston said, “Enough arguing you two. This isn’t helping.”

‘Who said Ah was ‘ere ta _help_ ‘im?’ Bob said impishly, his tail wagging, ‘Ah may be a good lad, but it don’ mean Ah don’ enjoy watchin’ a good bit of rightfully earned humiliation every now ‘n then.’

Hammond’s scowl deepened, he rose his tiny hand only for Winston to sternly tell him, “You’re here to build bridges, not break them more. Focus on making amends, not Bob.”

‘Stupid dog…’ Hammond muttered, letting his hand drop as Winston cleared his throat, catching the attention of the rest of the room, “Good afternoon everyone.” He said, “As some of you know, Hammond here was not very nice earlier and would like to apologize for his rudeness. However, he is unable to share that due to damage to his MEKA and possibly his translator. So, I have decided that perhaps instead of a verbal apology, he instead proves to us that he can be trusted by trusting the ones who were most hurt by his comments.” He looked out to the crowd.

“Is it okay if we jus’ let Molls decide?” Junkrat asked, “She was th’ one who beat ‘im, only seems fair she gets ta choose th’ punishment.”

“That is not what this is.” Winston said firmly, “This is Hammond trying to make amends and show he can be trusted by showing he trusts us. One of those ways is by offering to have Hana and Molly choose his costume for tomorrow’s party…”

“We kinda chose everyone’s costume for them without checking with them first.” Hana pointed out, “I agree with Rat, just let Molly decide how he’ll ‘make it up to us’.” She said, making air quotes with her fingers, the little bunnies painted on her fingers looking as if they were jumping.

“It’s not…!” Winston tried, only for Morrison to speak up, “Winston, he attacked our people and physically wounded one of our own just to spite a child, even if the cut wasn’t all that deep, he sent a message that he doesn’t care if we get hurt. If he can’t verbally apologize to us, then him accepting his punishment is the only thing I personally am going to accept to show that he really does feel bad about what he’s done.”

Others in the room vocalized their agreement and he looked down at Hammond.

The hamster sighed, ‘Foine, I’ll accept me punishment ‘n try not ta attack anyone else.’

“Hammond agrees to that.” He translated.

“Good.” Ana said, standing up from her seat, “Now, all those in favor of letting Molly decide his punishment?” she asked. A sea of hands coming from the tables full of adults, and a handful from the table where all the children were seated (Orisa included at the table with the kids).

“All opposed?” She asked. A few hands from the kids table went up, Orisa and Zenyatta rose their hands too, but compared to the amount from before, the answer was clear.

“Majority wins.” Ana said, “Molly, if you will.”

“Wait a tick!” she called as she went back towards the kitchen for a moment before coming back out a minute or so later, carefully holding a large glass filled with something neither he nor Hammond were able to identify.

‘It’s a banana ‘n peanut butter smoothie.’ Bob informed them, ‘Th’ hamster ‘n me can’ have chocolate, but she didn’ know fer sure if you could or not, Winston. She really didn’ want any of us ta feel left out, even if one of us ‘ere attacked ‘er Pop.’

Hammond scowled at him, but it didn’t stop the rest of Bob’s explanation, ‘So she had Zarya help ‘er make ya a smoothie instead. She gave me a treat ‘n even got a pecan fer th’ troublemaker up there.’

“Ah.” He said simply, touched at the gesture as Molly held up the glass for him, which he happily took with his free hand, “Thank you.” She smiled vibrantly at him before turning to the hamster in his hand, scowling as she held up a single pecan for him, “Don’ think you deserve it, struth, but I know I wouldn’ want ta be left out if everyone else was havin’ a treat…” she admitted, her cheeks pink, “So, ‘ere.” She held it out for him as far as she could.

Winston lowered his hand and Hammond, shocked, carefully took it from her, letting out a soft squeak in thanks.

“As fer what you can do ta make it up ta everyone…” She said, her expression stern, “I have only two things. The first one is Winston’s idea...” She looked at Hammond, “If you really wanna be one of us then ya have ta wear what me ‘n Hana give you ‘n ya can’ complain ‘bout it!”

‘I can do tha’.’ Hammond agreed. Winston relayed that information, pleased that not only did she only have two ideas on how to punish his old pal, but that she seemed to like his idea of having her and Hana pick out the costumes, just like they did for everyone else. Which meant that it would help Hammond become more accepted among the others as they all would have that in common and it could help bring everyone together. But he felt sympathy for his friend as he watched her cowlicks slide down to the sides of her head, the wide, impish grin that Roadhog told him that she had inherited from her mother wide on her face, her violet eyes sparkling with mischief as she then said, “Th’ second thing is tha’ ‘e _has_ ta play with all th’ kids ‘ere fer as long as we want ‘til they leave th’ day after tomorrow.” She pointed to the unofficial kids table, “’N tha’ includes ‘Risa!”

“Thank you Molly!” Orisa said cheerfully, Bastion whistled something and Molly paused, looking to Zenyatta for translation.

“He would like to play with him too.” He said.

“Oh, sorry, Bastion!” She cried, upset for excluding him, her mother’s grin gone as she turned back to Winston and Hammond, “Can I change it, please?”

“It’s your say, you can change it until you two shake on it.” Winston told her.

She smiled, “Thank you, Winston!” She said.

“Okay, fer th’ second thing, Hammond has ta play with all th’ kids ‘ere, ‘Risa ‘n Bastion fer as long as we want ‘til the other kids leave th’ day after tomorrow.” She rectified. The adults in the room either whispering, most likely wondering if that punishment was too harsh or chuckling about how that hamster was gonna get it!

Bob’s tail started to wag and he had an impish gleam in his eyes at the suggestion. Winston nearly tried to ask that he would at least be allowed some breaks to rest and eat and go to the bathroom and such, but instead, Hammond laughed, ‘Ha! ‘N ‘ere I thought I had somethin’ ta be worried ‘bout! I’ll do it!’

“Hammond, I don’t think that is a good idea, at least let me try to…” Winston tried.

‘Oh, let ‘im do it!’ Bob barked from the ground, his tail wagging faster than before, ‘Ah wanna watch ‘im learn jus’ how much work playin’ with one pup can be, let alone a whole litter ‘n a half!’

‘Work?!’ Hammond scoffed, ‘These ankle boiters?! Pft, yeah roight, I’ll wear ‘um out in less than ‘n hour!’

“Hammond, I really don’t think you are thinking this through…” Winston warned.

‘They’re jus’ kids, how bad can it be?’ Hammond asked.

Bob was rolling on his back, his tail wagging like crazy, ‘It’s yer grave, lad!’ he laughed.

‘I’ll do it!’ Hammond insisted, ‘Tell ‘er!’

Winston opened his mouth to argue with him, but stopped himself. Bob was probably right, it would probably be best if he learned the hard way just how tiring children could be. So he instead took a sip of his smoothie, finding it to be quite tasty and making a mental note to ask Zarya if she had any other tasty smoothie recipes he could try before finally speaking.

“He agrees.” Winston said, “But I will ask that you _please_ let him take breaks from time to time.”

Molly pouted at the request, then murmured, “Foine, but only ‘cause you asked… ‘N said please.”

He smiled at her and gently ruffled his favorite student’s hair with his foot, “Thank you, Molly, I really appriecate it.” He then put his foot down and asked, “So that’s all?”

“Yup. Tha’s all.” She said, the cowlicks resuming their devil horn like postion on her head.

“Alright, then it’s settled. Hammond will have to wear whatever costume you and Hana pick out for him and will have to play with all the children, Orisa and Bastion as much as you all want until the other children have to leave the day after tomorrow.” He then held out the hand with Hammond in it, “Now all you have to do is shake on it.”

Molly held out her finger and Hammond took it with both of his hands and they ‘shook’ on it before she took her finger back and cupped her hands together and held them back out to him, “May I please have him so I can introduce him?” She asked politely, her cowlicks in the same spot as before.

Hammond hopped onto her palms and smiled at his old pal, ‘Ha! This will be easy!’ he said as Molly took him back to the kid’s table, Bastion making his way over to join them there.

‘Tha’ hamster is doomed.’ Bob chuckled, his tail still wagging as he got up off the floor and back onto his three legs.

“You didn’t help.” Winston pointed out.

‘Not mah job ta help.’ Bob countered, ‘’N besides, even you have ta admit tha’ lad has been up on other’s shoulders, or hands in yer case, fer too long. I dunno what ‘e was like up there on th’ moon, but even I can tell tha’ ‘e’s been playin’ th’ lone wolf ‘n been pampered fer it fer far too long. ‘Bout toime ‘e learns what bein’ part of a team is like. What bein’ in a pack is like. It’s never easy. It’s not always fun. But a pack always has your back, if he wants ta be a part of yer pack, ‘e needs ta learn a little humility won’ kill ‘im ‘n tha’ ‘e needs ta treat th’ rest of th’ pack right. If it takes ‘im bein’ played with by a bunch of pups, then so be it.’

“I guess.” He sighed, “I just wish I could have helped more…”

‘What are ya on ‘bout?’ Bob said, ‘Ya tried ta warn ‘im, ‘n ya got Molly ta agree ta let ‘im have a break every now ‘n then. Tha’s more than ‘nough fer someone who thinks tha’ girl is gonna go easy on ‘im after scratchin’ ‘er Pa jus’ ta spite ‘er.’

He placed a paw on his foot in a comforting gesture, ‘Come on, now, stop beatin’ yerself up ‘n go sit down ‘n enjoy yer smoothie. Socialize! We’re probably gonna start makin’ supper soon, so ya might as well chat with tha’ Emily lass in th’ mean toime instead of headin’ back to yer lab. Besoides, she told me tha’ she’s been thinkin’ ‘bout askin’ ya fer ideas ‘bout what ta get Lena fer their anniversary, whatever tha’ means. I say chattin’ with some lovely lass ta help a friend is a better way ta spend yer toime then feelin’ bad fer a friend who made their bed ‘n is gonna havta lie in it.’

Winston smiled and gently rubbed his head, “You are wise beyond your years, my friend.”

‘Got tha’ right! Ah’m barely eight meself, in dog years anyway!’ he laughed before heading towards the kid’s table to his little mistress, ‘Enjoy yer toime with yer pack, Winston!’ he called out over his shoulder.

Winston took another sip of his smoothie, “I think I will.” He said before walking over to where Lena, Emily and Zarya were sitting, smiling when they happily made room for him and they quickly became engrossed in conversation.

Winston smiled, he nearly forgot that, much like dogs, gorillas are social creatures as well. And boy was he happy to have such a diverse and welcoming pack.


	48. Got yer back

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hog tries on his costume, D.Va gets a nasty call and an even nastier flashback and Ingrid's pies really are rippers.

Junkrat smiled as he and Torb attached the last bit of Hog’s costume onto him, pleased with how it looked. It wasn’t exactly like the illustrations Hana had given them in the light of the workshop, but they had managed to do a great job making it look a lot like it despite a few drawbacks…

Like how in the drawings, the ‘Big Daddies’ had eight yellow glowing ports out of their helmets that they assumingly looked out of. Of course, how the hell could he look out for enemies around him in the dusk and dark if the inside of the helmet was really fucking bright? So they designed the helmet with two eye holes covered in glass that Roadie would actually look out of and eight round LED powered lights attached to the outside of the helmet to both keep it looking like the original design and give Hog extra light so he could see better when it got dark out.

They designed a spot for him to put his hook, just in case it was needed. They hooked up an actual oxygen tank to the suit (with a few other tanks too, don’t want him passing out from too much oxygen, which apparently is a thing), making sure he could breathe in there without his mask. They also put in a cooling system to keep Hog from overheating, since they doubted they could easily move a passed out Hog in general, let alone with him wearing a heavy suit of metal and leather in a large crowd of mostly kids and parents, no matter how strong they, Reinhardt and Zarya could be, his girth would be their downfall even if their combined strength wasn’t. They put in a comm. system so more than just moans, groans and roars could be heard, but so they could understand if there was an issue and he needed help or if any of them should check out a certain area for possible Talon or Hyde bastards... Or any other fuckers who wanted a piece of little Molly.

Rat had nearly had nearly gone on an explosive rampage when he heard what the Australian government had planned to do with Molly after finding out she was Cheshire’s kid. He nearly demanded the ape send him and Roadie out there to teach them that using children as bait was something even Junkers found appalling and sick as all bloody hell. (The Ape said no, figures…) Luckily a few of the others had connections with some of these organizations, the Ninja bros especially. They managed to spread the word to the Underworld that Molly was Roadie’s too and currently he and Hog were working with Overwatch in exchange of giving Molly a haven from both Junkertown and the new slew of enemies her mother had made while separated from her, so unless they wanted to deal with the two infamous Junkers AND Cheshire, they’d better back the fuck up and stay away from Molly.

And while it helped, deter many who were looking to use Molly to get payback, it also caused a few of them trouble.

Pharah had gotten shit from her old bosses, to which she said that she had been partnered up with worse and got them to shut up. A couple of Reinhardt and Torbjörn’s old military friends asked if they were alright, working with Junkers and they assured them that the two men were fine fighters with honorable intentions and then those people just dropped it, accepting their words and even telling them to bring them by sometime, have a beer. They probably had some good stories to tell.

However, unlike Pharah, Reinhardt and Torb, the call Pipsqueak got after dinner yesterday from her South Korean Government, apparently demanding to know what the hell was all this about Junkers in Overwatch in a high pitched shriek that made even Hammond the bloody Hamster-slash-Junkertown MEKA Champ wince. Every time she tried to talk to them, she was met with shouts and what he could guess was loud swearing from the other end of the phone, her body quaking, her eyes watering and her voice soft and pleading whenever she managed to get a word in edgewise before she had what Junkrat recognized as what he and Hog got sometimes, what he called a ‘Past Attack’ and what Roadie called a PTSD episode and Ana snatched her phone out of her hands and hissed something into it as he and Snowball quickly escorted her into another room, Lúcio right behind them with Mercy.

Hana spent the next ten minutes freaking out about Gwisin (apparently these fucked up Omnics from the East China Sea that pop up every few years with them coming out more often now, every few months, with new tech to take out whatever Korea managed to beat them with last time) crawling out of every corner, the cries of her mates as they got hit, their MEKA’s alarms in the backgrounds as they struggled to take control back, the crackles in the radio as they reported their horrifying statuses, being alone againt them and somehow managing to beat them and spasming out a bit, as if in pain, before she finally came back to the present… And then she realized that she was not where she thought she had been and Mei told her what had happened and she starting crying again, saying how she couldn’t believe she’d done that and that needed to stay strong or risk losing everything and how everyone was counting on her and how she couldn’t afford to break down like that and just berating herself over and over again in Rat’s arms. Lúcio held one of her hands and struggled to think of something to say as Mei tried to assure her that she didn’t mess anything up and tried to ask her what she meant while Mercy carefully took her pulse via her other wrist and stared at her watch, trying to get a handle on if poor Pipsqueak needed to be taken to the infirmary or not.

Finally, Rat decided that he’d take a shot at comforting her, after all, he knew what it was like to have one of those fits from the past, maybe that could finally come in handy for once.

“Oi, who said ya had ta take everything on by yerself?” He asked her. Hana looked up at him, her eyes and nose red from crying as he explained that, “Look, take it from me, alroight, takin’ on so much on yer own is gonna do nothin’ good fer ya.” He indicated his right arm, silently struggling through his own past attack for a moment before reminding her that, “You ain’ alone, Pipsqueak. Ya may be th’ best MEKA pilot in th’ world, but in case ya haven’ noticed, th’ rest of us ain’ half bad neither.”

He gave her a jagged smile speckled with gold, “Save some loime loight fer th’ rest of us.” He teased, making her chuckle a bit before he asked her, “’Member what ya said ta me ‘n Roadie when we first came ‘ere ‘n I asked ya why you were bein’ so noice ta us?”

She nodded as she wiped her face, “I-I said that you could always count on me because we’re all part of the same team here… That I-I’d have your backs if you had mine…” she sniffled.

Rat poked her forehead, “_We’re all part of th’ same_ _team_.” He repeated, “You don’ hafta worry ‘bout messin’ up or handlin’ everythin’ yerself, because we’re a _team_. We have your back ‘n you have ours. We won’ let you down, so stop worryin’ ‘bout it, okay?”

“And if you feel overwhelmed by this again, just come talk to us.” Snowball urged softly before looking down at her shoes, “I-I know what it’s like to wake up and realize people I care about are gone and feel the weight of all of a group’s hard work come down to just me…” She swallowed, her eyes shining with unshed tears, “I-I still have problems going to sleep at night because of it…”

Mercy put a hand on her shoulder and Mei took a deep breath, “Back when Overwatch was still… before the PETRAs act, I was on a research team at the Eco-Watch Point in Antartica… There was a storm… a h-horrible, horrible storm. It… it damaged the base and we were stranded. We were running out of supplies and we knew it would be impossible for us to survive until a rescue came if we just sat around and waited. So we decided that the only way we’d survive until a supply drop or a rescue party came was to go into cryostasis… I thought it would only be a few days, but I-I woke up nine years later… alone… the o-o-others… they d-didn’t…” she let out a soft sob and struggled to keep going, Lúcio grabbing her hand, trying to give support to both red eyed girls as Mei continued her story.

“I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t understand how no one had come to help us. How we could have been forgotten for nine years… I saw there was a transmission on the emergency Overwatch frequency, but I couldn’t get it through, I decided to make a new antenna and I made my endothermic blaster to help stablize the radio tower… I ran out power before I could finish, Snowball sacrificed his own battery power so I could finish my work.”

Rat made a small mental note to himself at that information;

To Rat from Rat: be nicer to Mei’s little bot, for her sake at least.

“I saw the transmission from Winston and I decided to come back.” She continued on, “I-I said my good byes and packed up a sled and started hiking home, luckily I had an old portable solar power to restart Snowball, but still, it was a lonely way home…”

Hana hopped out of Rat’s arms and hugged Mei, tears trickling down her face again, “I’m so sorry, Mei. I’m so sorry…” She murmured softly as Mei hugged her back, “I’m sorry, Hana, I didn’t mean to make you cry again! I just wanted to let you know that you shouldn’t try to take everything on alone, because…”

“Bein’ alone is th’ worst.” Rat finished for her. Mei nodded, grateful that he understood too, although Hana still seemed a bit lost on what they meant.

“I think that what they are trying to say,” Mercy said, “Is that you need to stop thinking that you have to do everything yourself, we’re a team, we work together.”

“Basically, stop trying to carry the team, we all are skilled enough to do more than just our fair share.” Lúcio translated for her, “We got you.”

Hana smiled and nodded before she went back to hugging Mei, who locked eyes with Rat. The two seemed to have a moment of mind reading, because they both knew what needed to be done here;

Help the Brazilian grow a pair.

Rat jabbed at Lúcio’s shoulder and motioned to Hana and Mei, Mei and Rat mouthing in unison, ‘Comfort. Her.’

Luckily the DJ got the message and Mei managed to transfer the hug to Lúcio before sliding over to Mercy, who gave them both a flat look as Rat walked over to them to watch the two hugging, “Did you two really need to do that?” she whispered.

“_Yes_.” They said in unison.

Mercy was probably about to talk to them about letting Hana and Lúcio go at their own pace but luckily Morrison came out of the mess hall and saw the pair hugging, then their trio beside the door.

He knew that both Junkrat and Mei had been rooting for the two, both letting out hissing sounds when the two would chicken out on making a move on one another and getting all frustrated over it. He also probably knew, just like everyone else in the base, that the two decided to team up to try and help them out… usually in humourous ways, because while Mei looked like an innocent little snowball, that girl had an impish streak a kilometer long and Junkrat liked that about the sheila. That’s why they were such good mates, that and he knew how to barbeque a fish perfectly to her liking and she could make the best hot chocolate he’d ever had!

He gave the two a knowing look, “Your work?”

“’Course.” He said proudly as they fistbumped without looking.

“Fire and Ice.” Mei confirmed, her eyes and nose still red and puffy, but her usual smile was back where it rightfully belonged.

He rose his eyebrows at the new team name, but said nothing about it before looking at them all, “the kids are starting to get upset, and seeing not just one, but two of you with red, puffy eyes won’t help. Ingrid is keeping them busy by having them help make pies for dessert tonight.” He then cleared his throat and ruined his and Mei’s hard work, much to their frustration as the two jumped backwards and looked at him with pink faces as the old man dished out orders.

“Mei, you and Hana wash up. Angela, make sure they’re at least a light pink by dinner time. Junkrat, Lúcio, if you could help Ingrid, Torb, Reinhardt and Ana distract the kids in the kitchen, I think they’d appreciate it. Afterwards, you two girls better be ready to be thoroughly pampered by children!”

The girls headed towards Mercy’s office and Rat grumbled as he and Lúcio made their way back inside the mess hall, Junkrat stopping by Winston and urging Lúcio to go on ahead, waiting until Lúcio was out of earshot before asking the ape if he could send a message to the South Korean government for him. When he nervously asked what it was, Rat told him exactly what he wanted to tell those bastards;

He and Roadie were teaching Hana about Junker culture and about Junker MEKAs after she learned they had MEKA fights back home. When she told them about the Gwisin, they told her about how Hog and Molly’s mother had been in the AFL and Rat had been in the remains of the Omnium in Austrialia, looting the place before they left Junkertown, so they both knew a thing or two about some of the stuff inside of one and were. That they were even working out a possible map for one with the help of a Vishkar architect in the hopes that if they could figure out how those damn things tick (he and the ape both knew that part was a lie, but Vishkar had a good standing in the world and he and Roadhog did know a thing or two about Omniums so the South Korean government would totally believe it. That and Rat saw this as another fun little side project to give him and Satya excuses to spend time with one another that would make sure that shitty little suit would shut his fucking trap if he tried to talk her out of it, since they were working to help save lives and make the world a better place), that they could help figure out how to stop the ones producing more of those fucking metallic psychos without risking the world the same fate Oz did way back when the AFL blew up the Australian Omnium all those years ago.

In other words: Junkrat and Roadhog were Hana’s informants, teaching her about fighting bloody bots without much tech which could make their next wave easier to take out if needed, different kinds of MEKAs, and Omniums. But more importantly, she was a good friend, a good influence to Molly and someone they trusted and cared about, something that, let’s face it, is practically unheard of when it comes to Junkers and Government workers, so scolding her for doing great work while bonding with them was not something they were okay with.

_And if they **ever** made her cry again or put too much pressure on her for doing her job and helping people again, **Hog would hook them and Rat would cook them**._

To their surprise, the ape actually pulled him, Hog and Satya into his office, had Rat go over his words to them so they were all on the same page and then happily called up Pipsqueak’s superiors and Rat told them that right to their bloody faces, with Hog giving a few intimidating snarls, growls, and cracking his fists just at the right moments as he did so. He did give them a tiny bit of information about the Omnium that even Rat hadn’t known about and said if they wanted more information, they’d have to get on their hands and knees and beg Hana’s forgiveness before he’d work on drawing up a sketch of what he could remember from all those years ago.

Satya then happily joined in on dishing out her own helping of ‘get stuffed’ to them, saying that she was so busy from all her other work that even if Roadhog, Junkrat and Cheshire did draw out helpful guides of Omniums for her to help her figure out the structure and the most likely layout of the home of the horrors of the east, she might be too busy trying to help console Hana after she had gone through a PSTD episode earlier after being screamed at and called horrible names to do so.

The Head Wristies of the Korean Government had the decency to look sheepish for yelling at Hana and triggering the past attack and they promised they would apologize to her and see to talking to their UN rep about getting rid of the PETRAs act to see that they could work together in stopping the metallic monster spewing Omniums around the world without risking radioactive fallout or the Junkers being imprisoned when only trying to help before the call finally ended.

The ape was more than just a little pleased at guilt tripping the South Koreans into helping Overwatch become legit again as well as shaming them and kind of threatening them for picking on Hana before they left for dinner. Where Winston made the announcement about the new project and how the South Korean Government planned to not only apologize to Hana, but to help veto the PETRAs act, turning dinner into a fun little party.

Rat smiled as he recalled enjoying some lovely one on one time with his amazing girlfriend over slices of dynamite apple pie and blueprints as he sketched out what he recalled of the inside of the Omnium, which was a lot more than most things since it was so alien to him when he had explored the place.

“You still with us, Twiggy?” Torb asked, annoyed as Junkrat snapped out of his flashback.

“Sorry, mate.” He said sheepishly, “Was thinkin’ ‘bout how good tha’ pie was last noight. Yer wife really taught those kids how to make some real rippers.” It wasn’t_ technically_ a lie, he had been thinking about the pie right before his little flashback ended, but he bet that Torb’s angry scowl would soften at the mention of the pies and help them move along as if nothing happened.

It did.

Hog held up his thumb, silently agreeing that the pie last night was _delicious_ as Torb’s expression softened at the mention of the dessert. He watched the older man smile proudly at mention of his wife’s amazing skills, “I can’t blame you, Twiggy! My Ingrid’s pies are th’ best in Sweden ‘n probably in Norway ‘n Finland too, if I’m bein’ honest. ‘N she’s always been a good teacher, there is not a kid of mine tha’ has ever done poorly in school with her helpin’ them with their homework!” He bragged as he pulled out his comm., Rat quickly pulling his own from his pocket and the two of them sticking them into their ears.

“Alright, let’s test the comm. systems,” Torb said, in a much better mood now that he believed that Rat had completely zoned out because his wife was an amazing cook and teacher.

They worked on adjusting the frequency to see which ones would be best for the outing before hand, getting muffled syllables for a bit until they finally heard the first thing they heard clearly from Hog since putting the suit;

“So, does this drill actually work?”

Rat smiled so broadly he felt his lips crack and bleed a bit at the question.

The moment Rat showed Torb the design of the ‘Big Daddies’, they both agreed immediately that they _had_ to make the drill actually work… for _safety_ reasons…

But admittedly, mainly because it was cool and they really, really wanted to. It wasn’t like Molly’s piggy bank where they ‘shouldn’t give a seven year old a weapon’ and ‘what happens if she accidently sets that thing off?’ etc, etc, etc.

They had barely managed to hide their work on the armor and drill from the girls, but it wasn’t long before they spotted it and Molly had to save them by insisting that it was a surprise and to stop looking at it and asking them to look at her work instead.

Later they were both cornered by their girlfriend and daughter, respectively, and the women demanded answers.

They then had to explain that the giant drill was part of Hog’s costume and told them that if they said anymore, Hana would kill them and suggested that they instead discuss Roadhog’s costume with her to explain the design and why they weren’t up to anything bad…

Thank Christ Pipsqueak had their back, she showed the two the design and explained why the drill was needed (and later texted them both that the drill better work or she’d be so mad!), but he still didn’t get why they were so upset at the thought of them putting a weapon on Hog’s costume. Especially since, for a few of the costumes the others would be wearing, they would actually _have_ weapons on them while going down to this party in town. So it wasn’t like he would be the only one armed.

And it wasn’t like Hog was inexperienced in combat, like his eight year old is, he knew when and where to use a weapon the most effectively and was a damn good fighter even unarmed. Hell, even if they didn’t have the drill on this thing, it still made him heavier and harder and Hog was quite good at using his size, girth and strength to his advantage normally, thank you kindly! (Hana told him to say that while working on this costume, he really didn’t get it, but he did owe her for keeping his girlfriend from being mad at him, so he did, even when he was just thinking something while working on it and not vocalizing it.)

Besides, with Hog’s hook and the drill actually working, no one would even _think_ about trying to snag Molly from him because he could simply hook them close and _drill_ it into them that no one touched his little girl without either her consent or their death.

Note to Rat from Rat: Haha! Nice one!

Note to Rat from Rat: Ta!

“Of course it does!” Torb insisted, almost insulted, “Pull th’ trigger like we told ya ‘n give it a go!”

Hog lifted up the massive drill, the core of which held his friend’s massive hand and a trigger. The sound of an engine roared behind Roadhog and the drill spun to life, making Rat let out a manical laugh filled with glee and Torb smiling and barking out a laugh of his own with him.

“Alright, now that we see that it works, let’s get that offa ya.” The old man advised pulling out a stopwatch and a pencil, “Don’t want you overheatin’.”

“Ta.” He replied as Rat helped him remove the helmet and put his mask back on before they started carefully removing each piece of armor until he was back to how he looked before they loaded him up earlier. Torb hit the stopwatch and scribbled the length of time it took to get the thing off next to the amount of time it took to get it on.

“You should eat early tonight.” He advised before looking down at the paper thoughtfully, “Better yet, we should have a large lunch today and some snacks a little before we leave.” He then excused himself to discuss dinner with the other Overwatch Elders, muttering to himself as he tried to figure out a good time to eat and how much they should eat before going down before letting out a swear as he wondered aloud how Ingrid managed this so well every bloody year as the door closed behind him.

Rat and Hog stood in silence before he looked to his large friend, curious as to what the heck that was all about.

“Parents hafta worry ‘bout schedules a lot.” Hog said simply, “Guess ‘e’s a bit out of practice.”

“Schedules?” Rat repeated, confused now. As far as he knew, schedules were for suits and his girlfriend’s stupid weekly meetings with the fucking Talon bastard. Now, they had times where they would be out on missions, but he hardly really needed to keep track of that since Athena would often remind them a few days before they would leave on who was going and what they were doing and they always had a briefing before they left (the urgent mission to King’s Row being a very rare exception to this rule).

“When Molly gets up, when she eats breakfast, when she plays, when ‘er lessons are, when she meditates, lunch toime, dinner toime, bath toime, bed toime, all those times when she’d have to go fer check ups in th’ beginning…” Hog listed easily off his massive fingers.

“I guess I didn’ really think ‘bout tha’.” He said, “I mean, durin’ th’ day she koinda jus’ does whatever she feels loike.”

“Yeah, but she’s been gettin’ more inta a rhythm lately, she’s been getting up at ‘bout 7:30,8 in th’ mornin’, I try ta tuck ‘er in at about 9 at noight so she gets some sleep since she needs ‘bout 10-11 hours a noight.” Hog informed him, “It ain’ as consistant as it moight be fer other kids ‘er age, like when she apparently stayed up late watchin’ a movie with th’ other kids in th’ rec room last noight. ‘N I’ve noticed tha’ she gets really tired ‘n hungry after usin’ ‘er powers a lot. So I give ‘er more food ‘n let ‘er sleep in on those days, tha’s why I told ‘er she should take a nap ‘fore we head down today, want ‘er ta have a little extra rest ‘fore we head down tonoight.”

Rat stared at him for a moment, baffled. He’d had no idea Hog thought about this kind of stuff so much, or at all, really.

Then again, he and Hog never really had set schedules, they were never really a thing in Junkertown, or while they were on the road, and the base was very relaxed with this kind of thing, everyone just did whatever they felt like it while on base unless they had missions to prepare for. And, in case of an upcoming party, a Pipsqueak to appease or else risk her tiny, but frightening, wrath.

“Rat?” Hog called, surprised that his pal had been silent for so long, because he knew him well enough to know that this was not pie induced silence.

“Parenting is harder than it looks.” He said plainly.

Hog jerked his head back at the statement before letting out a low laugh and gently (for Roadie) smacking him on the back, “It’s worth it.” He assured him after taking a moment to calm down, “But I wouldn’ go gettin’ ‘Metra pregnant jus’ yet.”

Rat felt his face burn as he scowled at his friend, “We haven’-! It’s not-!” he struggled before angrily flipping him off.

Hog laughed and held up his arms in surrender, “Sorry, sorry! I thought you two were gettin’ close ta tha’.”

“No!” He said, “Not tha’ I wouldn’ wanna, ya know, some day, but…” He sputtered as he tried to find a way to explain this. He really did want to have sex with her, but he didn’t want it to end there. He wanted more than just a good fuck and a few fun pashings, he had been smart enough to figure that out not too long after Hog helped him work out just how much he liked her.

He loved every second of his new relationship with her, hell just holding hands made him one of the giddiest blokes you’d ever seen. But other than kissing, hugging, holding hands and snuggling, they had not gone farther and he wasn’t planning on it until she gave him the okay. When she was ready and okay with it.

She was very sensitive when it came to touch, he knew that. She explained as much after he spooked her with a gentle touch on her shoulder when she had been deeply enthralled in her work not too long after he and Roadie arrived here. After she had explained why she was uncomfortable and that she didn’t like it and how unconcented physical contact made her feel, he apologized and felt like an enormous ass afterwards before deciding to ask more about her boundries (after asking Hog for a little help figuring out why he felt like that when he had no way of knowing that beforehand). It had helped a lot with them becoming more comfortable with one another and working together.

She actually told him not too long ago that she had been very impressed and even touched (figuratively) that he had asked her for more information to make sure he wouldn’t do anything she wasn’t uncomfortable with, something most people at Vishkar didn’t even do for her, their top architet, and there he was, a so-called crazy, murderous Junker, with a huge international bounty on his head, asking what he could do to make her feel more comfortable.

And honestly, before he met her, he couldn’t give less of a shite about things like respecting personal boundries (except for things like sex and stuff like that, he may be a Junker, but he was also a gentleman. If a sheila turned him down, he would respect that and leave them alone). That wasn’t something he cared about, and it wasn’t like something like brushing your hand against someone else’s was something he ever bothered thinking about. It was more of the fists against his face kind of physical contact he was concerned about, and that was only if it was happening to him (Roadie can take most hits without so much as fucking feeling it). But for some reason he couldn’t really explain at the time, he _did_ care about how she felt about being touched and then that kinda sorta started to spill out to the others to the point where he actually had some semblance of a clue as to how to comfort someone effectively.

If anyone asked him why her, he could spend all the time in the world explaining why she was worth the effort and thought, but to put it simply:

Satya made him happy. Very, very happy.

He liked this relationship thing, and so far, he’d found that there were plenty of small steps he enjoyed doing with her that he’d never even thought to try before. Like talking about new projects or making snacks together, hell, just holding her in his arms was fucking _fantastic_!

If you told him before he came here that he’d be perfectly happy just _holding_ someone, he’d look at you, shake his head, and walk away murmuring, “’N people think _‘m_ crazy.”

He’d gone through a long, frustrating process to realize just how much he liked her and what he could do about it, and that was _with_ Hog’s help, he was finally in the door now! He wasn’t just sitting there, wondering when his feelings would stop being one sided and doing his best to be charming and have her like him. He was in a _real_ _romantic relationship_ and he wanted to make sure he didn’t mess up.

Oh sure, they’d have disagreements and they’d get mad at each other sometimes, but they usually let each other cool down and talk about it alone later, but that was all before they started dating, but hopefully that kind of thing carried over.

And as much as he wanted to jump to something he knew a little more about, where he knew for sure he could make her happy, he’d never dare try without her being completely okay with it and risk losing her forever.

The very thought of that happening made him feel oddly, well, _fragile_. Like he could easily shatter into a million pieces with a single light breeze, and not only was that feeling completely terrifying, but boy did that feeling HURT.

It hurt more than losing his arm and leg, and that was _seriously_ fucking saying something!

But no matter how much he knew this, how does one put all of these feelings, happiness, fear, pain, love, into something that makes sense when said out loud?

“I don’ wanna fuck this up.” He finally said, “I… I jus’ want ‘er ta be happy. I loike it when she’s happy. I-I don’ wanna lose this…” He started to shake at the very thought of it, he felt his chest feel like it had turned into broken glass, air seeming to be trapped in his thickening throat…

He felt Hog’s massive hand pat his back, “You won’ fuck up.” He said softly, “’N if ya do, we’ll help ya make it roight.”

‘_We’re on the same team.’ _Pipsqueak had said all those months ago, ‘_I’ve got your backs if you got mine._’

“Ta.” He managed, feeling the air trapped in his throat leave with the word as more air rushed into replace it into his once again normal lungs. Man, it felt good to be on a team.

Hog chuckled again, “Dunno why yer thankin’ me, ‘m jus’ returnin’ th’ favor. After all, I don’ wanna fuck up bein’ a parent.”

“Who says ya would?” Rat asked with a smile.

“Th’ Australian Government.” His pal rumbled, amused.

“Ha! As if those blokes know anythin’!” He laughed as they finally left the workshop, the two nearly walking into Mei and Hana, who were each holding a box, “There you are!” Mei said sweetly before practically tossing the box into Rat’s gut.

“Bloody hell!” He cried as he staggered to keep himself and the box from falling.

What was with the sheilas here hitting him in the gut?! He glanced down at the box and saw the name ‘Symmetra’ written in bright blue letters, “Why th’ fuck did you jus’ toss Sat’s box at me?”

“Oh, that was Satya’s box?” Mei asked, her eyes sparkling with mischief as she put on a surprised face, “Oh no! I must have given her yours by mistake! Whatever shall I do?”

He didn’t know, but he made another mental note to pay her back for this;

Note to Rat from Rat: foind a way ta lock Zarya in th’ lab with Snowball without getting me arse kicked… also make sure there’s Vodka in there before hand.

He smirked back at her, “Well, since we jus’ have each others, I could jus’ go ‘n ask if we can swap.” He offered with a cackle.

“Really?” Mei asked, her act cracking as she smiled broadly at him, her intent clear on her face as she sweetly said, “That would be great, Junkrat, thank you!”

“Any toime.” He purred.

Hana held up the box she held for Roadhog, “We were going to drop this off at Angela’s office, but Athena says there’s a special call for me in Winston’s office and then I’m helping Ingrid with Hammond’s costume. So would you mind dropping this off there for me?” she asked, batting her eyelashes.

“Only if you promise to give those bastards hell.” Hog replied coolly. Pipsqueak’s eyes sparkled with malice, “Oh, they’ll be wishing for hell when I’m done with them!” Her face faltered from dark and devious to soft and grateful, “I-I really do appreciate what you guys did for me yesterday and I am sorry that you’re going to put up with a lot of crap for it. I know how you two feel about governments, but it really means a lot that you are willing to help one…”

“What are you on ‘bout?” Hog asked flatly.

“Yeah, we ain’ doin’ all tha’ ta help _them_, we did it ta help you, ya drongo!” Rat said, moving the box to rest against his hip and his metal arm so he could gently jab at her with a flesh finger, “’N besides, if it means we have to go all th’ way ta your neck of th’ woods ‘n help your lot destroy a bunch of bots,” He smiled and shrugged, “we can loive with tha’.” He turned to his partner in crime, “Couldn’ we Roadie?”

“As long as we get barbeque after.” Hog agreed, obviously smiling under the mask.

“Oh, after we win, we are _so_ getting barbeque!” Hana confirmed with a determined expression before giving Rat a hug, then Hog one, “Thanks again for having my back guys.”

“You got our back, we got yours.” Hog repeated to her as he gently ruffled her hair.

“Yeah, Pipsqueak, ‘sides if you cark it then Snowball ‘ere’s gonna have ta play with Molly all th’ toime when me ‘n Roadie ain’ ‘round.” Rat joked.

“Please, no!” Mei blurted, quickly adding on that, “I love Molly and everything, but she has way too much energy for me! I can only play with her for so long before she wears me out! Last time Angela and Reinhardt had to look after me while Ana and Pharah took over!”

Note to Rat from Rat: Change of plans, convince Zarya to help Snowball with a workout so she can keep up with Molls. Then ‘accidently’ lock them in the gym. With Vodka.

“Well, I don’t plan on dying anytime soon, so I’ll keep being Molly’s number one playmate, thank you!” Hana said proudly, “Speaking of playing…”

She grabbed their hoslters and managed to turn them around before trying to push them forward (Rat moved a little bit, but Hog didn’t budge) as she sang, “You boys have fun!”

The two looked back at them for a moment, watching as the two women happily continued making their way down the hall, looking quite pleased with themselves.

“Whaddya know, teamwork really does make th’ dream work.” Hog said.

“Fair dinkum it does!” Rat agreed cheerfully before they parted ways and Rat eagerly ran towards Satya’s room.

Who knows, maybe by helping Satya by bringing her costume could lead to her helping him with the tiny buttons on the shirt of his costume (those things were difficult to put on when only one hand had fingernails!). Maybe one day she’d help him undo them too, but he was in no rush.

He had this, and even if he didn’t he had some pretty dynamite back up to help him out.

Note to Rat from Rat: Rub our amazin’ gig in Roadie’s face with an ‘I told ya this place was gonna be great fer us!’

Note to Rat from Rat: Tomorrow. When he’s not wearin’ th’ drill ‘n ‘e’s worn out from Molly’s sugar hoigh.

Note to Rat from Rat: Yeah, definitely tomorrow.


	49. Scary Hogs and costumed cravings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hog and Mercy talk costumes and past Halloweens, Hog is reminded of how children who aren't his little vegemite react to the sight of him, and Hammond confirms that Hog is truly fucked.

Roadhog made his way to Angela’s office, managing to be good and NOT look into the box. When he finally arrived, he saw two Omnics outside and that her office door open and heard Molly saying, “Thanks fer lettin’ ‘im stay with you fer ‘is break, Angie!”

“It is my pleasure.” Angela replied warmly, “Speaking of breaks, perhaps you all should eat something and then take a bit of a nap yourselves, you wouldn’t want to be too tired for the party tonight!”

He then heard a child yawn and a whine about how, “But I’m not tired yet!”

“I know what we can do!” another child cried, “TAG, YOU’RE IT, MOLLY!!!”

Children dashed out of the office and poured into the hall, only to skid to a stop at the sight of him, letting out gasps and whimpers and even a few terrified sniffles as they edged closer to the omnics.

Ah, the usual reaction children had to him.

It had been a while since he’d experienced it.

He noticed that many of the older children were nervous around him and kept their distance from him at dinner last night (apparently the discovery of Molly’s powers had blocked out their fear of him earlier that day when he had been holding her after getting her and Bob away from the plummeting ball of metal that was Wrecking Ball and the younger ones were still over the moon about meeting someone with super powers to notice him.) and was glad that Molly was too busy trying to get used to talking to people closer to her own age to notice. But man, he had gotten so used to having Molly always being happy to see him, he’d nearly forgotten how much it hurt to be feared so much when he’d actually done nothing to warrant it… for once…and to hide behind _bots_ for protection? He didn’t know if he should be insulted for seeming weaker than those bots or because they hid from him behind bots, one of whom had actually killed people in the first Omnic Crisis.

Molly and Bob ran out after them, “Wait, which game was tag again? Is it th’ one where we jump over each other, or-!” she blurted nervously before her anxiety melted at the sight of him.

“DADDY!” she cried, racing over to him and latching onto his leg, Bob right behind her to give him a few doggie kisses.

He couldn’t and wouldn’t stop the laugh that rumbled out of him, even if it did make some of the kids tremble at the sound as he bent down and scooped the two of them up, Molly squealing with delight as he did so. The sound like a breath of fresh air to make it sting a bit less that those other children were scared of him when he only was standing there, doing pretty much nothing.

“Guess this means ‘m it?” He joked, the other children started to pale at his words while Molly brightened at the idea of him playing with them before he decided to spare the other children the horror of being chased around by him and fibbed, “Too bad I have me appointment right now. I could ask Angela if we could reschedule, but I really should get me lungs checked out today.”

Molly pouted, but nodded before noticing the box in his other arm, “What’s tha’?”

“Oh, I met Pipsqueak in th’ hall, she wanted ta drop off ‘er costume but she also had a call in Winston’s office. Told ‘er I’d bring it to ‘er instead, since I was comin’ ‘ere anyways.”

“Are those blokes apologizin’?” Molly asked.

“They _better_.” He growled, making the children tremble and slide farther behind the bots, “Sorry.” He said to them, helping Molly break from her ‘Daddy-Daughter’ happiness haze and realize that her new friends were still cowering, but a little less so since he had apologized.

“What are you all doin’?” She asked, “I may not remember which game tag is, but I know _tha’s_ hoide ‘n go seek.”

“Maybe you all can go over th’ rules of tag over lunch ‘n then play ‘n then take a nap?” He suggested, “Last I checked, it was gettin’ close ta lunch toime, ‘m surprised you all aren’ in th’ cafeteria already.”

Molly’s stomach rumbled at the news and she looked at the others and smiled, “Race you all ta th’ kitchen!” she challenged.

“Yer on!”

“Racing is fun!”

“Last one out is a boot filled with poop!”

“Ewwww!”

And with that last comment, the rest of them raced off down the hall, the bots staying where they were as they seemed to wait for him to put his daughter down and get one last hug from her.

“Don’ you worry, Da’. I’ll tell ‘im how yer not scary over lunch!” she promised before running down the hall to meet up with the others, Bob giving him look that asked, ‘what did you expect, she’s your kid’ before he barked happily and followed her.

He heard a soft, warm chuckle and turned to see Angela smiling at him as she motioned him inside, wearing her lab coat open, revealing a bright orange sweater with a black jack-o-lanturn face on it. He’d noticed her light up jack-o-lanturn earrings at breakfast (hard not to when his daughter stood in half-awake awe of them for a couple of minutes and kind of held up the breakfast line because she was trying to figure out how the tiny pumpkins on her ears were lighting up.) but he had not noticed the sweater. Then again, he recalled her wearing a shirt with a grumpy witch in a robe with the words, “I’m a real witch without my coffee” on it getting some strawberry filling on her blouse (Hog had to try _really_ hard not to stare) so she’d probably changed after breakfast.

“Come in! Come in!” She invited excitedly, “I have plenty of time to squeeze in your impromptu appointment and I am eager to see what Molly and Hana have picked for me to wear tonight!”

She was practically bouncing on her toes with excitement, reminding him that Ana had warned all the newer members of Overwatch (and Molly and Bob) how much Angela loved Halloween and to be careful if she asked them if they wanted to go into town for a pumpkin or something, or they might end up hauling so many Halloween decorations back to base and Morrison and Winston insisted that they had far too many in storage already.

“Honestly, watching Hana and Molly organize all this reminds me of when Angela and Gabriel, the head of Blackwatch, would organize such big and elaborate parties here on Halloween! They’d make the costumes, they’d oversee making the food, they’d hand pick every song that would be played during the party and they’d turn any base they were on into a Haunted House!” she’d told him with a laugh before looking a bit solemn, “It will never be how it was back then, but seeing that this new generation is just as excited about celebrating Halloween as we were back then makes me glad I came back. I missed spending time with my family like this...”

“Mako?” She called, snapping him out of his flashback and pouting a bit, “Are you listening to me?”

“Sorry.” He said as he finally crossed into her office and stopped himself from putting the box on the desk when he noticed that the hamster was snoozing on a single pillow, it’s body curled up into a ball.

He motioned to the bed farthest to the desk and she nodded. After depositing the box onto the bed he said, “Jus’ ‘membered somethin’ Ana told us, how you ‘n some bloke named Gabriel used ta do all this stuff. Wonderin’ what it was loike back then.”

“Oh, would you like to see?” She asked, her blue eyes alight with glee at the chance to show off her past work.

He smiled and nodded and watched her quickly run back to a bookshelf, slowing down to make sure Hammond was still sleeping before she pulled a thick book from the shelf. “I was thinking about it earlier this week and brought it here.” She explained quietly as she handed it to him and motioned for him to take his usual place before she tore into the box he’d brought like Molly had torn into her birthday presents earlier that month.

He flipped through pages of elaborate costumes, blushing at some of Angela’s old costumes. A lot of them showed far more skin than he was used to when it came to her, most of them showed a good portion of her legs, chest and back, each one seeming to cling to her hips and show just how shapely her rear actually was.

Her witch costume, her Valkyrie costume (as in those sheilas from Valhalla, not her usual suit, although he would never say it out loud, but that suit did make her ass look amazing too), her devil costume, her winged Roman/Greek costume, and her ‘Vermillion Bird’ costume (whatever the fuck a Vermillion bird was…)… all of them looked way too good and he wished Bob was here to help him as he wrapped his free hand around the already dented edge of the bed and crushed it even more under his fingers as he bit his lip.

Fair dinkum he had not been expecting these kinds of things after hearing from Ana how much she loved getting all dressed up for Halloween. If anything, he thought she’d be the kind of sheila who’d go for scary, not… well, _spunky_.

‘Turn th’ page, ya bloody drongo!’ He told himself in an effort to keep himself from wrecking the bed any further… or needing some serious alone time and time to reflect on himself before taking his daughter out for her first Halloween so she could trick or treat for the first time.

With that fact in mind, he managed to flip past the page where Angela had proudly pasted photos of past costumes to a page full of Angela and a dark skinned man were hard at work prepping costumes, standing over stacks of papers, painting decorations, carving pumpkins and cooking horror themed snacks. On the top of the page it read, ‘Gabriel and Angela, Masters of Fright’. He chuckled at it, the man looked a bit older than her, but they seemed to be good friends.

He continued through the album as he heard the sound of rummaging and the good doctor’s thoughtful hums as she seemed to look something up on a floating blue screen.

“Whatcha doin’?” He asked her.

“Hm?” she replied, not looking from a piece of paper as she pulled a purple dress from the box, then looked up at him, as if just remembering he was there.

“Oh, sorry!” She said, embarrassed as she stuffed the dress back into the box, “I was simply checking out the clothing and seeing what it was from…”

“So what is yer costume from?”

“A game called Bioshock.” She said, looking at the paper, “Apparently my costume is of a ‘Dr. Brigid Tenenbaum’ a geneticist who discovered a special substance that had DNA altering powers.” She paused, “That sounds a little more like Moira than it does me…” she said, sounding a little insulted.

He looked up to see a somewhat hurt look on her face and asked, “What else does it say?”

She gently handed it to him and he skimmed words on the page himself, his eyes stopping at the part she mentioned and continued reading quietly to himself, stopping when he found the part he had a good feeling would make her feel better.

“Dr. Tenenbaum is known ta be a mother figure ta th’ little girls runnin’ a’round th’ city, tryin’ ta cure th’ people ‘er discovery mutated ‘n save th’ little girls. She helps th’ player break free ‘n goes ta th’ surface with ‘um, both of ‘um adoptin’ th’ little girls after they rescue them at th’ end of th’ game.” He read.

“What?” she asked as he handed the paper back to her and she read more of the handwritten bio on the paper.

“Tha’ Moira slagger don’ seem loike th’ type ta try ta help people, ‘specially if she was th’ one who hurt them. Doubt she’d stick ‘round in a dangerous place after ‘er work was done neither. Think yer more loikely ta help someone else, even if it puts ya in danger. Yer also th’ type ta stick ‘round until yer sure tha’ th’ people you cared fer are gonna be apples.” He said as she finally smiled softly at the paper and nodded, tears sparkling in her eyes for a moment before she wiped at them, the silence around them stifling.

“… So, you gonna try tha’ on or what?” He asked, “I can wait ‘ere ‘til yer done ‘n then we can start me treatment fer today…”

She finally smiled like she had before and quickly gave him a hug before quickly closing the curtains around the bed where her costume was, giggling excitedly as he took a moment to calm down and crush the side of the bed once more as he did his best not to act like a teenager and go running out of the room whooping it up from just getting a hug from her.

Seriously, he was edging close to fifty fucking years old, when was he going to stop reacting to things like a fucking fifteen year old?

If she got this giddy about a Halloween costume, maybe he should ask Pipsqueak if she could think of any excuses to have a costume party again some time…

Or maybe they could have their own special Halloween party here next year, let Ana enjoy something like the parties they had before the UN decided to be wankers again.

She continued to make happy noises on the other side of the curtain, making him feel all warm and fuzzy inside as she tried everything on after checking to see if the hamster stirred from his pillow.

He had liked Halloween as a child, a chance to dress up and blend into a crowd, to be like everyone else for once. As he got older and puberty made him larger, Halloween suddenly became far less fun because one, finding clothes in his size was a fucking challenge at that point, where the bloody hell was he supposed to find a costume that would fit his fat arse? And two, he already had people screaming at the sight of him, he didn’t want to give them a fucking excuse. He didn’t really celebrate it when he graduated, he was too busy looking at farm land to buy. After that, there was the Omnic Crisis, losing his mom, joining the ALF, helping to cause one of the biggest nuclear tragedies in history, living as a Junker, joining up with Rat and causing mayhem and destruction all around the world…

He’d been a very busy bloke.

Now, well, now it had been the first time in years he had even given the holiday a thought, and the first time in even more years, he was actually looking forward to it. And it wasn’t even to enjoy himself or to see Angela in her costume (although that was something he was looking forward to a _little bit_.), but for him to be there with his daughter to enjoy her first Halloween in the costume she picked out and with a bunch of other kids that she had made friends with and to just enjoy her first big childhood holiday.

“What was yer first halloween costume?” He found himself asking her.

“The first one I ever had or the first one I decided for myself?” she replied.

“Both.” He clarified.

“Ah, my mother dressed me up as an Angel for my first Halloween when I was just a baby and for the first costume I chose, I picked a harpie when I was about five.”

“Tha’s half bird, half person, roight?” He recalled, noting that she had a thing for dressing up as something with wings.

“Yes, they are from Greek Mythology, my father taught mythology from all over the world and would often tell me those stories at bedtime.”

“So yer Mum was foine with yer Da’ tellin’ ya stories about people havin’ sex with animals ‘n cursin’ ‘n killin’ each other over petty things ‘n shoite, but she had a problem with you readin’ Captain Underpants?” He teased.

She poked her head out from behind the curtain and stuck her tongue out at him before pushing the rest of it away and revealing her costume, “Well, what do you think?”

He quietly asked Athena to help him pull up a search window and scrolled for a few seconds until he found a nice image of the character and glanced from the photo to her costume. She wore a purple dress with a white collar, a labcoat, a wig with brown curls, purple heels, had a shotgun and a container of a glowing red substance. He smiled and gave her a thumbs up, “Jus’ loike th’ picture.”

She looked down at the costume and said, “Not as elaborate as I’m used to and I honestly wear something similar to this every day, but considering all the work that was done to make sure everyone here had a costume, I can work with it.”

“Comfy at least.” He pointed out.

“True.” She agreed, “I suppose one year of wearing a comfortable costume wouldn’t hurt me. But next year, I plan to take over costume duty.”

“You sure you’ll be able ta wrangle tha’ from Molly ‘n Hana?” he teased.

“I have my ways.” She purred back before putting the props onto the table, the gun sounding heavier than he had been expecting as she then began her usual scans, treatment talks and they were about to start a round of chess when Athena told them that everyone was to eat a big lunch before the party, waking Hammond from his sleep and Hog got up and quietly offered his palm to him. Hammond paused for a moment then carefully climbed up it, looking so tiny in his hand.

“Torbjörn insisted that you eat plenty now, Agent Roadhog, considering your costume is quite difficult to get on and off.” the AI reminded him, as if he needed help remembering just how elaborate and heavy his costume was.

Angela’s eyes sparkled a bit at that information, “What exactly are you dressing up as?” she asked eagerly.

He sighed and pulled the paper from his back pocket that Rat had given him earlier when he’d first seen the pieces of his costume and asked, ‘th’ fuck is tha’.’ And handed it to her, “It’s from th’ same game, called a ‘Big Daddy’. ‘Parently Molly picked it out.”

Angela let out a snort of a laugh as she looked from the paper to him, “Quite the fitting costume then!” she chuckled. Hammond squeaked and held out his arms and Angela smiled and handed it to him for his inspection…

Which kept her attention away from his flushed face at her words, remembering how animated and giggly Rat was when he was telling him how Molly had gushed about how he was ‘Th’ Best Daddy Eva’ when playing the game both his and Angela’s costumes were from to all of Hana’s fans. And when Torb had Athena play videos of their playthrough while they began helping him put the costume on (and continued to let play until they put the head on), it really had been really cute watching her brag about him. He truly felt like a beloved parent and it obviously showed as Angela gently patted him on the back with a giggle and said, “You two can go on ahead, I’ll change back to my regular clothes and meet you there.”

“I can wait.” He found himself saying without thinking, his face burning as soon as he realized what he had just said and he quickly added, “Plus, best ta let Wreckin’ Ball ‘ere wake up a bit more ‘fore we see th’ little ones…” Angela was surprised for a moment, then smiled vibrantly at him, “Danke! I’ll be right back then!” she said while Hammond let out a sigh of relief and seemed to relax in his hand a bit.

Hog nodded and felt his ears start to burn as he quickly grabbed her scrapbook and did his best to focus on the group party pictures instead of thinking too hard about Angela walking back towards the bed to change behind the curtain. He heard the pull of the curtain rings, indicating that she was now changing just a few feet away from him.

_Fffffuck_…

He sank his nails into his leg, Hammond catching on to his reaction and much like Bob before him, dug his tiny claws into his skin as well.

“Ta.” He whispered before did his best trying to distract himself by showing the stuff in the book to Hammond, who looked at the photos with a curious expression on his face and his nails piercing deeper into his flesh.

It shouldn’t be too hard, after all, he’d managed pretty well earlier when she was changing into the costume… while he was checking her out in all those pictures of her in her old costumes…

He sighed and looked at the hamster, and murmured, in as quiet a voice as he could muster, “Fair Dinkum, ‘m roight fucked, aren’ I?” Hammond said nothing and simply gave him a sympathetic look and a light pat on the palm he sat on.

“Tha’s what I thought.” He groaned.


	50. Make up and memories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angela enjoys learning about everyone else's costumes, remembers halloweens past and THERE WAS A COSTUME PARTY AND NO ONE FUCKING TOLD HER?!

Angela happily sat through the reveal of the costumes Hana and Molly had chosen to do at about two thirty, half of the children sleeping in their parent’s arms from all the running around after they ate lunch. Even Molly was battling drowsiness as it went on. And while she was still a bit upset by her costume not being as elaborate as she was used to, Mako had been right, a comfy costume every ten years or so wouldn’t kill her. (And admittedly a break from those painful heels would be a God send) Besides, once she saw the themes of the costumes, she swore to herself that she would definitely be on board for helping with next year’s costumes, if not in charge of them outright.

She knew that she, Mako and Molly would be characters from the game Bioshock (because she guessed that Molly would want to have a matching costume with her ‘Big Daddy’), but the fact that Jesse would be joining them surprised her.

“I ain’ wearin’ that sweater.” Jesse called out, pointing to the ugly gray thing the main character was wearing.

“If ya wear th’ sweater, ya get ta wear yer boots ‘n keep yer gun.” Molly offered.

He considered it a moment, “Can I wear my h-…”

“No!” The two girls snapped in unison.

“Boots and gun or nothing!” Hana said sternly, “You keep it up and we’ll take the gun off the table completely!”

She heard one of Torbjörn’s son-in-laws ask his wife something in Swedish. Angela caught a few words, “Why” “Take” “Gun” and “Table”, allowing her to quickly guess that he asked her why taking his Gun to the party was still _on_ the table.

She spied his wife lean towards him and move her lips, but he didn’t look all too happy with the answer she gave him. Angela forced herself to look away, to watch Jesse frown as he seemed to realize that those girls would pull his gun off the table if he didn’t wear the ugly sweater on screen.

“… Fine…” He sighed before pulling his hat over his face with a groan. The Shimadas chuckling and whispering to one another before he grumbled, “Careful, partners, you still don’t know what they have in store fer you two.”

That made them both shut up as they continued on, telling them that Reinhardt, Hanzo, Junkrat and Satya’s costumes were all from a game called Bloodborne.

The costumes were fantastic, lovely Victorian ensembles with a dash of horror elements (so much fake blood!!!) and plenty of _glorious_ detail in the costumes themselves.

She heard Junkrat murmur to Satya, “Ya think ya can help me with th’ tie ‘n those little buttons on th’ shirt?”

“Those aren’t buttons, Jamie, those are cuff links.” Satya informed him.

“So I shouldn’ of sewn those on?” He asked.

“No, you should not have.” She said, a little laughter in her voice.

“… So those pins weren’ ta stab yer enemies with?” he sheepishly asked.

“No,” she laughed, “But I can understand why you’d think that way based on where they are from. Would it be alright if I come by after I get dressed to help you with that?”

“Fair Dinkum it would!” He said with a broad, warm smile that made Satya flush.

Angela felt her envy of their group’s elaborate and beautiful costumes melt away at the sight of their cute interaction. As much as she would have liked to have a costume as elaborate as theirs, she would not take away the chance for Junkrat and Satya to enjoy their first couples costume.

No doubt that the girls probably picked Reinhardt and Hanzo to also wear costumes from that game to keep Vishkar from suspecting anything, let them think that the girls had chosen those four simply because they would look good in them.

Which was great, because it would have been a tragedy if they were to have their first Halloween together as a couple without matching costumes, something she had personally dreamed about doing with someone she loved some day too. She felt a smile curl up her own cheeks as she watched Junkrat and Satya near the back of the room out of the corner of her eye, Junkrat giving the back of his girlfriend’s hand a kiss and making her smile before she gently took his flesh hand and wrapped it around her so they could quietly cuddle through out the rest of the presentation.

As sweet as the sight was, her heart ached at the fact that the base was the only place where they could show and enjoy each other’s affections safely. They couldn’t risk going out on dates just yet, which was fine and seemed to be good enough for them now, but she wanted them to be able to eventually enjoy spending time alone off base without worrying about Vishkar catching on and snatching Satya away.

She made a mental note to ask Junkrat if he needed any help with date ideas on base in the mean time as she watched as Molly told the others about how Efi and Orisa’s costume was from a game called ‘Last Guardian’, Orisa would be a creature named Trico and Efi would be the child companion who befriends it. Then she told them about how Hammond and Bastion would be from ‘Shadow of the Colossus’, Hammond being the tiny human named Wander and Bastion being a massive being called a Colossi that Wander would try to slay to bring a friend back from death’s door.

She felt her breath become short as she recalled the night she tried to do the same for Gabriel, her Halloween bestie, how she had failed him so badly. She tried to save the man and instead accidently made him into a monster.

She struggled to push old memories away as Molly and Hana told them that Winston was going to the party as the Incredible Hulk, Lena would be Iron Man, Emily would be Pepper Potts and Ana would be Nick Fury, much to all but Winston’s approval. Angela barely hearing Winston cry out, “Wait, you were serious about the temporary dye?!” before she recalled the first time she’d seen Gabriel Reyes.

He had been putting up a sign up sheet for volunteers to help the annual Halloween party not too long after she joined Overwatch. She stopped, surprised that a UN funded military group like Overwatch could even have Halloween parties, or parties in general and became excited, recalling so many fond memories of her and her parents carving pumpkins, designing costumes and turning their home into a house of horrors, how her friends and roommates would freak out after she had just carved a masterpiece into a pumpkin with a scapel while blindfolded while still in medical school…

“Um,” she had began, only for him to look at her, his expression stern.

“Before you say anything, I will have you know that here at Overwatch, one does not half ass Halloween and live. If you volunteer, you better be ready to bring it.”

She smiled broadly at him, eager for the challenge, “I’ve carved Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream’ into ten pumpkins while only using a scapel and my bare hands all in three hours.” She informed him, his eyebrows rising at the claim before she purred, “So the better question here is, is Overwatch ready for the best Halloween party in history?”

Gabriel smiled broadly and laughed, “Ready or not, it’s happening!” He then held out his hand, “The name is Gabriel Reyes, what’s yours?”

“Dr. Angela Ziegler, I look forward to working with you!” she said cheerfully as she took it and gave it a firm shake.

“Molly,” Hana called, snapping Angela from her flash back, “I can take it from here, you should rest up, you have a lot of candy to get later!”

“’Kay” Molly yawned with a drowsy rub of her eyes before she slowly made her way to her Dadhog, being careful to avoid where Bob was snoozing at his feet and rose her arms in a silent request to be lifted up while calling out in a soft voice, “Daddy…”

Mako chuckled and carefully lifted her up and Angela felt a gentle tugging at her heart strings as she watched Molly happily snuggle into her father’s arm before falling asleep. Hana then told them about how Torb and Ingrid would, of course, would have a couples costume, Torb would be Fix-It Felix and Ingrid would be Sergeant Calhoun. (Ingrid had already planned out their costumes so Molly and Hana simply passed along their idea for them to use next year and accepted her costumes for them.)

Angela managed to hold back a sigh. Those two were serious when it came to couples costumes, much like her own parents had been. So many pictures of the family costumes Ingrid and Torbjörn had pulled off over the years flashing in her mind. She also wanted to do a family costume one day with her eventual spouse and children some day...

Family costume…

Her eyes widened as the Korean pro-gamer then announced that Mei and Zarya would be ‘Ice Climbers’ with Snowball as Kirby and Bob as Meta Knight.

_Warte hier eine verdammte sekunde…_

Did… Did Molly and Hana put her, Molly and Mako in the same group on purpose so they would have a sort of family costume?

… She didn’t know for sure, but she pondered this until she heard Hana tell them about how, last but not least, Fareeha’s costume was from a game called Metroid and the character’s name was Samus. Fareeha lit up when she saw the design of the costume and how it wasn’t all that different from the Raptora Mark VI and then it brought Angela’s mind back to the task at hand here.

Keeping everyone safe.

“So, for those of you who are wondering why Molly and I have okayed real weapons being brought to the party tonight, well, there have been a few incidents as of late every time Molly has been in town…”

“What kind of incidents?” a woman with dark skin and a stern expression asked as she stood.

“Well Mrs. Oladele, every time Molly’s been in town… Well…” She seemed uncomfortable speaking before she finally finished her sentence in a soft voice, “…We’ve kinda been shot at.”

“You’ve been WHAT?!” She cried, as several of Torb’s in-laws hissed things at their wives. Mrs. Oladele glared at Orisa, “AND YOU DIDN’T THINK TO TELL US?!”

“I told Efi.” Orisa reported, her expression upset for being yelled at, “The first time it happened I was there, so I reported it to her and she instructed me to let her know if anything else like that happened, just in case. I am sorry, I thought Efi told you.”

Mrs. Oladele stared at her daughter, shocked, “Efi, if you knew, why didn’t you…?”

“Because I still wanted to come here.” Efi said softly, her eyes starting to well up with tears, “Most of my friends my age stopped talking to me a while ago because they think I’m ‘too mature for them now’ and all the people I talk to at the university are nice and all, but they don’t want to do fun things for Halloween, they only want to drink and dance, they don’t want to trick or treating or play games…”

Efi’s parents hugged her, her father asking, “Why didn’t you tell us sooner?”

“I didn’t want to worry you. I thought I could handle it myself but…” she started sniffling and Orisa carefully walked over and joined the family hug.

Bob got up from his spot with a yawn and a stretch before he got up and walked over to their group and began licking Efi’s leg to comfort her. She smiled and wiped at her face before gently stratching at his ears, “Thank you.” She said softly.

Oscar began talking to her, and the three of them seemed to be helping Efi and her parents calm down a bit, much to Angela’s relief. She felt her heart go out to Efi. She knew what it was like to be in college when you were younger than everyone else there, it was intimidating to say the least, especially since there was far less guidance than she was used to. However, she was lucky that she made friends who liked similar things and had many people around her who were happy to guide her and help her through college. She still kept in contact with many of them.

It would seem that, due to Efi’s status as a genius with her face pastered everywhere around town, that it was far more difficult for the people around her to feel comfortable talking to her and it would make her friends feel as if she was too far away and make them jealous.

She made a mental note to talk to the Oladeles after the presentation and offer tips to help Efi make more friends at school and to patch things up with friends back home.

She then heard Hana go, “Huh? What are you-?” bringing her attention back to the front, where Ingrid and Ana took places on either side of Hana, their smiles oozing confidence as Ana asked Athena to pull up _their_ slide show, revealing a map of the area and a precise schedule.

“We’ll take it from here, Hana.” Ana assured her, “Why don’t you go sit down and Efi, I believe Angela has gone through something similar herself when she was close to your age, I’m sure she has some good advice for you.”

Efi looked up at her with tears still streaming down her face and Angela smiled warmly at her, “We can discuss it after the presentation, is that alright?”

Efi smiled at her and nodded, wiping at her eyes again before her parents thoughtfully moved over so Orisa could hold Bob up to her to pet and Oscar seemed to exchange numbers with her Hana hopping over and asked for her number too before she went back to her seat.

The two mothers waited a few minutes for Efi to socialize a bit more before bringing their attention to the slide behind them.

“After both incidents in question, we have a plan to handle anything that comes our way, but for now, Ingrid will go over the plan and I will tell you all about any changes we will make in case of an emergency.” Ana said before motioning to Ingrid, who smiled broadly and clapped her hands.

“The main goal for us is simple: I have mapped out the longest route for the children to gain the most candy and wear themselves out doing it and make sure they hit all the stands before they announce the winners of the costume contest and we can return back to the base…” she began, but Angela immediately stopped listening the moment those two words left her mouth.

** _ THERE IS A COSTUME CONTEST HAPPENING TONIGHT AND NO ONE TOLD HER?!!? _ **

If she’d had known there would be a costume contest, she would have taken charge of the costumes herself WAY back when the two girls started even thinking of costumes! She silently lamented not going to Hana earlier and taken over for them, but at the same time, she and Molly had done a pretty good job planning out most of them.

BUT WHY DID HERS HAVE TO BE SO PLAIN?!!?

“Mr. Hog?” Ingrid called, Angela’s mind snapping out of her costume concerns for a moment to turn to see the massive man beside her, still cradling his sleeping daughter in one arm, answer with, “Jus’ Hog is foine.”

“Hog.” Ingrid said with a smile before asking, “Torby told me that, unlike the others, Molly hasn’t spent a lot of time in crowded places. Would the crowd make it harder for her to have a good time or feel safe?”

“Nope.” He said simply, popping the ‘p’, “I asked her last noight if she felt she could handle it when she went ta get ‘er blanket ‘n pillow from ‘er room so she could sleep in th’ common room with everyone else. She said she believed in Winston’s present ‘n was really excited ta go trick or treatin’ with everyone tonight. I made ‘er promise ta tell me if she felt overwhelmed ‘n I’d take ‘er home, no matter what. But I don’ think we need ta worry to much about it ‘n should jus’ do this loike any other group would. We’d draw attention ta ourselves any other way.”

“True…” Ana said thoughtfully, both mothers looking pleased by his answer and his going above and beyond by asking Molly about how she was feeling and making her promise to come to him if the party became too overwhelming. Angela couldn’t help feel all warm and fuzzy about how he was such a good daddy before she peeked over towards Winston, who was crying tears of joy as Mei and Reinhardt gently patted him on the back.

She smiled, it would seem that someone was _very_ happy that Molly had so much faith in his birthday gift to her… hopefully it made up for him basically having to dye himself green for a night…

“Alright then!” Ingrid said, “Now I will explain the game plan in detail!”

The next hour and a half Ingrid went over every detail of the route and the schedule, taking into consideration the age of all the children, the size and weight of the costumes for all of them, the fact that she had bought several large pillow cases for all of the children to use (with the exception of the baby, as she was still too little for candy) and bathroom breaks. After she went over the plan, Ana went over emergency routes, things for the parents to look out for and instructed them to not drink.

“It happened once!” McCree cried from the back.

“Yes, you woke up with ‘Yeehaw’ tattooed on your rear when you were supposed to be watching Fareeha.” Ana said darkly, the older kids and a lot of the adults there chuckling at the information.

“Who the hell ya think dared me ta do it when I was drunk after dragging me ta the parlor?” He demanded. Fareeha trying and failing to look innocent while also trying to not laugh and failing at that too.

Ana glared daggers at her daughter, “We will talk about this later.” She said sternly, the younger Egyptain wincing at the news, before she said, “And with that, this briefing is over, we will eat again in a half an hour before getting ready. If anyone needs help with their costumes, let Athena know and we will find someone who isn’t busy to help you. That is all, dismissed.”

She and Ingrid moved away from the fading image and the lights came back on and everyone started to get up, many of them being careful of the still sleeping little ones.

That is, until Mako walked up to some of them and offered to hold them for them so they could get up. To Angela’s delight, Torb’s daughters seemed to have changed their opinions of him during the meeting, because instead of polite but obviously terrified, “No thank you”s, they gave him relieved looks and carefully placed their children into his massive arms and thanked him. Junkrat carefully joined in with Reinhardt and Torb, the four of them helping the parents have a moment to stretch before taking their children back.

“Ms Angela?” Efi called softly. Angela turned to look at Efi, who seemed to have recovered a bit since earlier and smiled, “Well, let’s see now, would you mind telling me what you’ve been doing at school and how open your schedule is?” she asked.

Efi smiled and gently pulled her back over to her parents and she happily listened and advised Efi and gave her her number to call, just in case she needed more advise or just someone to talk to who understood how she felt.

By the time she had finished chatting with the Oladele family it was time to eat again. So they woke the little ones up, telling them that they were gonna eat a little more before changing into their costumes. Telling any whiny children that they were doing this so they could get as much candy as possible and the kids immediately got up to go eat and then change.

They all had some nice, hardy snacks and made sure to rehydrate and go to the bathroom before the parents took their children to change, Orisa happily chasing after Efi, the two overjoyed about their matching costumes. Lena happily volunteered herself and Emily to help Winston and Hammond with their costumes while Brigitte and Zenyatta were going to help Bastion with his.

Angela happily volunteered to help Molly and Bob with their costumes, as her costume took little time to put on and her father’s took a very long time to get on and off. Roadhog went with Morrison, whose costume was also quite easy (Captain America), Torb and Genji (Power Ranger) to help with his costume, telling her that he’d see her in a bit and was excited to see her in costume, making her the happiest little girl all the way back to her room where the two of them gleefully put Bob in his little costume first, the dog happily strutting about with his cape and fake wings when they were done before covering both girls in dog slobber.

“’E loikes it!” Molly cried out, obviously pleased her puppy liked the costume she picked out as she gave him a big hug.

“Let’s see how much he likes your costume next!” Angela urged.

“Yeah!” Molly said as the two quickly dug into the box and pulled out the dress for her costume. Angela feeling all warm and fuzzy as she helped Molly into the blue dress with a white collar, sleeves and a white middle with a white ribbon, which she tied into a neat bow behind her.

So this was what it was like helping your child into their first Halloween costume… She smiled as she recalled how much fun she’d had with her own mother getting all dressed up for Halloween when she was litte. A memory from when she was a little girl and her mother helped her with her costume filling her head in particular…

“Mama? How come Mr. Adank got all mad when he saw our Halloween decorations?” She had asked as her mother helped her into her harpie body suit, which was covered in feathers.

“Well, Angela, many people in Swizerland don’t celebrate Halloween, they are fine with Autumn decorations, but they feel that the decorations we do is a bit much… especially since we all go to cemetaries for All Saint’s Day the next morning.”

“What if their dead liked fun things, like Opa did?” she asked as her mother began strapping her wings on, “I think Opa is okay with it and that Halloween is fun and doesn’t hurt anyone!”

“Your Opa loved Halloween too, your Oma too. That’s why your Papa and I go all out every year like we do, even if other people don’t like it.”

“When I grow up, I’m going to make every Halloween as fun as I can!” Angela declared as her mother finished putting her wings on.

“If it’s you, Angela, those Halloweens will always be something to look forward to.” Her mother said with a warm smile.

“Angie?” Molly called, snapping her out of her flashback.

“Hmm?”

“We gotta do me hair and make up next!” she said excitedly as she began bouncing on her toes.

“Alright!” Angela said, fishing through the box to find make up and the ribbon that she saw in the powerpoint, Molly giggling excitedly as she put on the white mary janes that she’d worn earlier that month, the blood and nail polish stains gone with Mei and Winston’s help. The dress from that time was still a work in progress, but they had gotten the blood out and were confident that they could get the nail polish off too, in time.

Angela found the ribbon, the make up and a helpful guide Hana had put into the box for whomever was helping her and quickly grabbed Molly’s brush from her half bath (a toilet and sink) and happily started brushing her hair back to be put into a ponytail, “Are you excited for your matching costume with your father?” she asked, already knowing the answer from her demeter, her overjoyed expression, and how tightly curled her cowlicks hearts were.

“Yeah!” she exclaimed happily, “’M glad you ‘n Jesse are dressin’ up with us too, but ‘m really excited fer Da’ ‘n me ta be matchin’!”

“Oh, how excited are you?” She teased as she tied her hair in the white ribbon provided in the box.

Molly smiled up at her before removing her bracelet and putting it beside her on the bed and Angela soon found herself leaving the ground, floating in the air with all the loose items in the room, Molly and Bob.

“_This_ much.” She said giddily, spreading out her arms as she cartwheeled in the air past her. Bob whined and struggled to doggie paddle back to the ground, but as Angela reached to help Bob, something sparkly caught her eye.

It was a yellow orange crystal wrapped in wire and it hung off a dark colored cord.

She gently grasped it with her hand and pulled it closer to get a better look at it, “what is this?” she asked.

Molly turned bright pink and all the small things in her room quickly returned to their places, except the necklace, which fell into Angela’s palm as she, Molly and Bob carefully were placed onto her bed.

“Is it tha’ bad?” she asked softly, hurt in her voice.

“No, no!” Angela said quickly, “It’s beautiful! I was just wondering why you turned your crystal into a necklace.”

“It’s a present… I made it fer me Mum.” Molly said shyily.

“Is that why you bought that crystal in the first place?” She asked softly as she handed it back, “to make something for your mother?”

“Uh huh,” Molly said, bashful as she held it, “Th’ sign at th’ shop said it meant happiness ‘n new beginnin’s… ‘N we Junkers loike shoiny things ‘n-n Da’ said she loikes th’ color yellow…” She looked up at her, “You think she’ll loike it?” she asked, uncertain.

“I think your mother will love it!” Angela assured her, “Especially since you made it just for her.”

Molly smiled at her and put her bracelet back on and Angela began putting on her make up, “Hey Angie?”

“Yes Molly?”

“If we meet me Mum ‘fore next Halloween, could you help make costumes tha’ you, me, Da’ ‘n Mum could all wear togetha?” She asked softly.

“I would love that!” she squealed giving her a hug before working her make up magic on Molly’s face, the two coming up with ideas for next year, smiling and laughing.

And even though Angela didn’t do anything to help with Halloween this year, she had a feeling that this year would be one of the best she’d had in a long time.


	51. Serenity 'n FUCKING HELL, SOMBRA

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Symmetra needs a break from the crowds and Sombra is surprised to find out how close they are.

Junkrat walked Satya to a small alley between shops, his voice soft and quiet as he told her it was alright, that they were alone and she could take all the time she wanted to decompress, that the others knew where they were and they could find out where they’d gone when she felt better. She was trembling as she nodded and he carefully pulled her close and just let her take some deep breaths to calm down.

Fuck, this was so unfair! She had been doing so well up until that point, handling all the people and the noise…

They’d all been put into the cars, trucks and others via Pipsqueak calling ahead down to a taxi company a few days prior to arrange a pick up from the base. They made their way down, a few of them parked, others were dropped off, the children immediately dashed towards the many little stalls set up with games set up on Main Street for them to play with other kids for candy, only for a copper to stop them and politely ask them to put glow bracelets on, to make it easier for their parents to see them.

Seeing a cop get so close to Molly made him twitch involuntarily, Satya softly reminding him that the cops here weren’t going to arrest him or Roadhog and that Molly was perfectly safe with them. He glanced at Roadhog to see Merc and the Cowboy pushing a finger by their ear, as if pushing a stray strand of hair out of their faces, most likely talking him down.

Rat sighed and pressed into his own ear and activated his comm., not surprised when he heard Hog growl, “Cops ain’ exactly a Junker’s best mate, back when we first saw ‘um they prob’ly don’ know who we was. It’s been a while since then, they could know who we are now.”

“Mako, you and Junkrat are wearing costumes, they won’t be able to tell that you two are who you are!” Mercy snapped.

Mako? Oooohh, looks like Hog’s been doing well for himself!

“… Wait, Roadhog’s real name is…” McCree began.

“Not somethin’ I gave ya permission ta say.”Hog warned.

“…Fair enough.” McCree conceded.

As much as he wanted to be his best mate’s back up here, he could tell at a glance that the sheila happily passing out glow sticks and helping children put them on wasn’t armed and she wasn’t eyeing them up for an arrest. So he told him that, “She’s apples, mate. They’re jus’ givin’ ‘er a light stick so we can see ‘er bettah. Ya don’ need yer hook.”

“You got eyes on ‘er?” He asked.

“’Course! Let ya know when I’ll take a smoko.”

“Ta.” Hog replied before it became silent again and he lifted his finger from the comm., Satya looking at him funny.

“Smoko is a short break.” He translated, pausing for a moment before chuckling, “’Though now tha’ I think ‘bout it, I smoke a lot, yeah?”

“You certainly do!” She laughed as they followed the others into the crowd, occasionally stopping to take pictures with people or for people or take photos of other people in between the stalls.

Molly even surprised everyone by managing to make a friend with a kid named Shawn, who was dressed up as one of the characters in the racing game he’d played with her, Pipsqueak and Lúcio when he was recovering from his bullet wound. A bloke with a green hat and shirt with blue overalls and a thick black mustache… Mario? Anyways, the boy was with a few others from that same game and she invited them to join their group to trick or treat… Which was great for all the kids AND the ape, because apparently the kids just moved up there for their parent’s work and their Aunt, the UN representative for Ireland, had come up to help them move and join in on the fun. So Winston and her chatted about repealing the PETRAS act as the kids dashed up to houses, eager for lollis and chocolates.

They’d been out for at least two hours, the kids trick or treating and all of them stopping for pictures. He’d kept her close whenever they had to go through small crowds and she seemed to get through each one with a squeeze of his hand and a deep breath on the way in and a long exhale when they were out of it. Finally they had hit all of the places Ingrid had marked for trick or treating and headed back to the stalls once more so the kids to play some more games before the winners of the costume contest were announced and they would head back… When suddenly a huge group left from a restaurant and started shouting loudly and shoving one another, the smell of booze coming off of them in waves.

Shit.

“Sat!” he cried, but it was too late, their whole group had several drunks weaving in and out of their group, with two blokes getting a little too close to Satya on either side of her and one bloke not too far behind her. He could smell them from his spot, maybe a meter away, and they were very bloody loud (not as loud as he could be, but louder that he bet she could handle in such a crowded place). With them getting closer and louder, he could already see her start to close in on herself.

Note to Rat from Rat: How long would it take ta kill these fuckers with nothin’ but me fists ‘n this fake hammah?

Note to Rat from Rat: Too long, get th’ emergency explosives ya brought.

Note to Rat from Rat: Nah, they’re too close ta ‘er ‘n th’ ankle boiters. I’ll jus’ hafta come up with an excuse ta sneak ‘er away…

He glanced down at his costume, come on, come on, there had to be something he could use on here for an excuse…

Then he spotted his tie and paused, heistant. As much as he’d wanted to yank it off ever since Satya helped him get it on (both because it was a bit tight and so he’d have an excuse for her to fuss over his clothes again, which he had found that he really enjoyed.) but she told him that if he fiddled with it too much, he was going to be kiss deprived all next week.

As much as he could use his tie to have a quick and simple excuse to get her away from the two rotten blokes hovering over her, their hands centimeters away from her skin… And the one fucking wanker behind her, raising his arm with an impish expression and his eyes glued to her ass…

Wait… WHAT?!?

He felt his temper flare in his gut, fueled by jealousy and a desire to protect his girlfriend.

Fuck it! He’d gladly give up her kisses for a week if it meant getting her away from those fucking bastards!

He tugged at his tie and pressed his comm. in his ear, “Goin’ on a smoko.”

“Try not ta kill no one.” Hog said simply.

He let out a snort of bitter laughter before letting go of the comm., completely undoing his tie so the long stretch of fabric hung off of the base of his neck and walked over to her, making sure to push the bloke about to smack her ass onto the ground, getting his mates and Satya’s attention.

“Careful, mate,” he said coolly before turning to Satya, putting on a sheepish expression, “Oi, Sat, sorry, I know ya said not ta mess with me tie…” He indicated what he’d done with an apologetic smile, “Ya moind helpin’ me with it again?”

A relieved smile was quickly covered up with a stern expression and a sigh, “Alright, but this is the last time…” she said as he gently led her away from the group, snarling at the blokes who had swarmed her the moment her back was turned to them. He carefully navigated her through the mass of people into a nearby alleyway that Nan told them about as an escape route, tinny for them, there wasn’t anyone there.

Which leads them to now.

Both of them in the alleyway, him comforting her as she slowly regained her composure and he informed the others where they were via his comm. and told them they’d meet back up with them in a tick in the softest voice he could muster.

“Take all the time you need.” Ana replied, “But do let us know when you leave, we’ll give you our location and we’ll decide on a meeting place.”

“’Roight.” He replied as he pulled his finger of his comm. and went back to work making sure she was apples.

She had her eyes closed and took deep, apparently calming breaths as she clung to the jacket of his costume, her shaking slowly stopping as she breathed in and out.

“Sorry I had ta undo me toie.” He whispered as he rested his chin on the top of her head, “It was th’ only thing I could think of…”

He felt her nose gently nuzzle into the collar of his shirt, “I’m more grateful that you got me out of there than mad about your tie.”

“So you _are_ mad ‘bout th’ toie.” He joked.

He felt her bounce a bit with a laugh as she carefully began retying the fabric around his neck, “A bit, but you did what you had to to get me away from there without hurting anyone, no matter if they deserved it or not.”

“So ya did notice th’ bloke behoind ya ‘fore I pushed ‘im.” He guessed.

“No, but I have a feeling that you wouldn’t have knocked him over without a good reason.” She told him as she carefully moved the knot up towards his throat, “And I’m glad that you left them all in relatively one piece.”

“Fer now.” He replied as she made sure the knot was straight and shook her head, her smile bright and warm as she told him that, “I think this Halloween would be best without real bloodshed.”

“’M jus’ sayin’, with me costume, no one would know it was real blood...” He pointed out.

“_Jamie_.” She warned.

“Foine, foine.” He murmured, pulling her into a hug and letting his lips press against her hair as he gently stroked a stray strand behind her ear, “Thanks fer fixin’ me toie again.”

“Thank you for rescuing me from those drunks.” She replied softly, looking up at him, “I think I’m almost ready to go back out…”

“Take yer toime.” He insisted, “Ratha you enjoy yerself than try ta go back out there ‘fore ya feel apples.”

“Alright, a few more minutes then.” She conceded, her head resting on his collar bone, her body relaxing a bit as she continued her deep breathing, her fingers gently tracing the buttons on his jacket. Junkrat allowed himself to gently thread his flesh fingers into her hair, quietly breathing her in. He felt his lips curve upward at the calming scent of jasmine, vanilla and lavender, his thoughts slow, his body relaxed and just feeling… what was the word?

Serene?

Yeah. Serene.

“Aww, how sweet.” A familiar voice purred.

_Well, so much for serene…_

He pulled Satya closer with his flesh arm, his metal arm braced against the wall, both ready to push them away from it and to block Sombra from coming closer as she appeared before them, dressed as some large hooded figure, a few daggers and sharpened bits of wood strapped to her side.

“Whaddya want, Sombra?” He growled.

“I’m just here for a night of fun.” She said with a shrug, “My new bodyguard wanted to come here and I’m always up for a fiesta.”

“New bodyguard?” Satya repeated.

“Yeah,” She said, her brown eyes sparkling with mischief as she looked at Rat, “I hired a Junker named Cheshire to watch my back while I’m working. Have to say, love working with her. She and my co-workers don’t get along very well, but hey, I don’t pay her to play nice with anyone but me.”

“Cheshire’s workin’ fer Talon?” Rat blurted, his guts feeling as if Sombra had stuck a fork in them and started twirling them like they were spaghetti.

“No.” Sombra said coolly, “Just me. If she worked for Talon, she’d have to go to Moira for check ups and I’m pretty sure she’d rather murder her and any other medical staff we have.” She then shrugged and said, “Can’t blame her, but still…”

Rat let the information sink in, that was right, that witch from the pet shop was the one who mixed Molly together in that lab…

So Ches _would_ slaughter every medic around if she saw that cunt when she walked into a doctor’s office. He and Hog would too, honestly. (He was so glad they had Good Ol’ Angel Wings on their side.)

“Why are you telling us this?” Satya asked, turning herself in his arm so she was closer to the arm held out in her defense.

“Just giving you a heads up.” Sombra said, “We would have called earlier, but honestly, this trip was a last minute thing and we scrambled to get some last minute costumes before the fun started.”

“Ya couldn’ of called first?” He complained, “Ain’ loike ya couldn’ foind Roadie’s numbah, you did it back when ya first asked if we was interested in tha’ job in Dorado.”

“Like I said, it was a last minute thing. I could ask if she could hold off for a day or two, but I doubt she’d go for it.” Sombra elaborated.

“What if holding off for that day or two could allow her a proper first meeting with her daughter?” Satya offered.

“What?!” Junkrat blurted.

“I’m listening.” Sombra purred, obviously interested.

“Good, Junkrat, may I please borrow your comm.? I need to contact Ana and Angela to help with logistics.” Satya asked.

Rat looked from one woman to another, silently asking if this was really happening right now before handing his comm. to his girlfriend and watched her walk out of his arms to talk to Nan and Merc.

He turned to Sombra, annoyed, “Next toime Sombra, jus’ fuckin’ call.”

“What? And miss you and Miss Satya Vaswani cuddling in an alleyway?” She teased.

He felt another rage burning in his belly that must have been clear on his face, because Sombra quickly said, “Sorry, sorry, I had no idea you two were together…”

“Tha’s ‘cause we hafta keep it tha’ way or Vishkar’ll do what they did ta Widowmaker ta Sat.” He growled.

Sombra’s expression went from horrified at the thought of whatever happened to Widowmaker happening again to furious, “When I get back, I’m so fucking with Sanjay’s life.” She growled.

“Keep me posted on tha’?” He asked.

“Only if you tell me what happened last time he was here to have him come back wearing _those_ clothes.” She replied.

Rat finally felt some of the rage subside as he pulled out his phone, an impish smirk wide on his face, “What’s yer numbah again?”


	52. Early introductions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cheshire is here.

Roadhog was keeping a silent watch over the children as they played a few games at the many stalls, ever ready to step in if needed. He’d pulled the trigger on his drill a few times, but only enough to impress those who took pictures or video of it, he hadn’t had to use it to silently threaten anyone or use it in a fight.

Which was such a shame, but he’d live.

That and there was always next year…

He looked towards the alleyway where Rat and Symmetra were stowed away, his eyes narrowed.

They’d been away for a little bit when he’d heard Symmetra call for Angela and Ana via the comm. and he’d felt the same ‘when in doubt, get th’ fuck out’ feeling when he knew something bad was about to happen.

Okay, maybe not _bad_, but at least a bit unpleasant for him.

But he didn’t want to spoil everyone else’s fun when he had no proof of any kind of danger or any idea if he couldn’t simply handle this himself without anyone the wiser.

“G’day, Mac.” A familiar voice purred from beside him.

_Fuck._

‘Least ya have yer proof now.’ He thought as he turned towards the voice and saw Cheshire all dolled up with a bunny masquerade mask, a dress that ended at her knees, stockings with tears up and down the legs, matching heels, and hooks tied to her arms. And he didn’t need to see her face to know that ‘Up ta shoite’ grin of hers was on full force behind that mask.

“Guys, Ches is ‘ere.” Rat announced.

“Yeah. I noticed.” Hog grumbled.

“She’s standin’ roight next ta ya, isn’ she?” Rat asked, a bit sheepish in being so late with his announcement.

“Yup.”

“Okay, well then someone’s gonna have ta give ‘er their comm. ‘fore somethin’ bad happens.” Rat said plainly.

“Ain’ you bein’ a bit…” McCree began.

“No, ‘e’s roight. It’s better if she can hear me so I can talk ‘er down if I hafta.” Hog agreed.

“…Right then, on my way.” The Cowboy said.

It didn’t take look for McCree to walk over to the two of them and give Cheshire a friendly smile, most likely to come off as not a threat or at least one not worth skewering, “Well hello.” He said, pushing the button just in case they needed someone else to come by to provide back up.

“Keep walkin’, mate.” Cheshire said immediately, not even sparing him a glance as she motioned him away with a wave of her hand, her hook gleaming ominously in the dim light of the street lamps and jack-o-lanturns. McCree was surprised by the reaction and he could hear Genji blurt out, “BURN!” over comms before laughing and then yelping as Hanzo snapped at him in Japanese and the comms were silent again.

Hog scowled and let out a low growl in warning to her. She sighed and looked at McCree with an annoyed look on her face, “What?” she snapped.

McCree held out his ear piece for her, “It’s hard ta get what Hog’s sayin’ without one of these, Rat asked if anyone wouldn’t mind letting you borrow one and I wasn’t usin’ mine…”

Cheshire’s annoyance immediately melted into a mix of grateful and apologetic, “’M so sorry! I thought…! It’s jus’!! So many blokes of been…! I didn’ know..!” she blurted, unable to finish her sentences as she flung her arms out in different directions as if it would help her get her words out instead of making her look like she was trying to direct traffic horribly.

“Well of course you didn’t!” McCree chuckled nervously as he backed away from her hooks before passing on his comm. to her, “It ain’ like you’re a mind reader.” He said, making sure to make eye contact with Hog before looking at Cheshire, who seemed relieved that he hadn’t told her to piss off or anything after she’d been so rude to him.

“If I could do tha’, I’d probably be a lot better off.” She replied, “Thank you fer this.”

“Ain’ no trouble, just press the button ta talk ‘n pass it back ta Hog when yer done with it.” He said with a broad smile and a bow of his head before he walked towards where Hanzo had Genji by the ear.

She carefully placed it into her ear and pressed the button.

“Can ya hear me now?” She asked.

“I could hear ya before.” He informed her, “You jus’ couldn’ hear me.”

“So whaddya say back?”

“Nothin’, too busy askin’ Rat why th’ hell ‘e didn’ tell me you were ‘ere sooner.” He said plainly.

“Oi!” Rat cried, only for Angela’s voice to cut in, “I think it would be best if we all switch off to a different comm. frequency, give these two some privacy.”

“Aww!” Pipsqueak whined.

“Come on!” Genji complained.

“We weren’t going to eavesdrop too much!” Zarya promised.

“It was just getting good!” Reinhardt agreed.

“A few more minutes!” Lena begged, “Please?!”

“Everyone but Roadhog and his guest change signals right now! This is an order.” Morrison said sternly.

“But what if someone tries to attack him?” Pharah offered.

“Roadhog, if you need to communicate with us, hold your drill in the air and spin it, we’ll come back onto this channel.” Ana said firmly, “Cheshire, dear, do you think you could act impressed if he did that?”

“This thing works?” She blurted, excited as she carefully lifted his drill arm up, admiring the handiwork.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” Morrison said before saying, “Everyone who doesn’t change right now will have to deal with their worse nightmare.”

“Oh really?” Hana challenged, “And what would that be? Push ups? Curl ups?”

“…I’ll change the wifi password.” He threatened.

Hana gasped and he heard multiple beeps indicating that many of them were switching channels.

“’M turnin’ moine off fer a bit, but I’ll be back once we get th’ details all sorted out.”

“What details?” the old ALF members asked in unison.

“No worries, you’ll both loike it!” he promised with a laugh before his clicked off.

“… Should I even?” she began.

“Nah, ‘e’ll tell us soon ‘nough.” He said dismissively.

“Yer boss.” She said with a shrug before smiling vividly up at him, “Though, gotta say, it sure is something that we’d be in matching costumes!” she said in a chipper voice, her arms crossing behind her back as she rocked back and forth on her toes.

“… Th’ fuck you on ‘bout?” He said flatly.

“Both of us are dressed loike characters from Bioshock.” She said, both disappointed and shocked that he didn’t know-slash-notice as she stopped rocking.

“Ah, I didn’ pick me costume.” He said, “Molly picked it out for me. She did it so we could match.”

“She did!?” she squealed, her violet eyes glistening much like Molly’s had when Angela promised her unlimited maskless play time with him, “Is she a Little Sister?”

“Yeah, think tha’s what she said,” He pointed to a stall where Molly was having a donut eating race with her new friend, Shawn, Efi, Oscar and one of Torb’s younger grandchildren, the other kids, Bob and Orisa cheering them on, “She’s over there.”

She turned to look at them, her arms curled up by her chest for a moment before she started shaking and her hands balled into fists, “Mac. Wha’. Th’. _Fuck_ is a _bot_ doin’ near my daughter?”

Well shite.

“Calm down. It’s not gonna hurt ‘er.” He said quickly, carefully putting himself between her and the bot.

“Mac, those-“ She stopped as a few children passed them, laughing and excitedly chattering on about the games they could play, not wanting to swear in front of them.

“I know.” He said, knowing if he gave her any chance to continue that she might make a scene, “But Molly’s not loike you, me ‘n Rat. As much as we don’ loike it, she don’ have no problems with bots. Tha’ big one over there is one of ‘er ‘best mates’. She jus’ ain’ scared of ‘um ‘n she don’ hate ‘um.” He nearly said that he personally believed that part of her lack of caution near bots was due to being made by a company that _made_ bots, just like they made her and her brothers and sisters. That the bots probably never tried to harm her for no reason unless they were following the scientists orders, something the kids there had to do as well. So if anything, those bots were probably more like fellow victims to her, like her siblings.

But watching as Cheshire began to shake at this news made him keep his gob shut. Although if the shaking was out of rage, fear or horror, he didn’t know for sure, but he could only assume it was all three as she asked him, “How… how can ya be okay with tha’?”

“’Cause what koinda parent would I be if I didn’ trust ‘er ta pick ‘er own mates?” He asked her, her fists loosening a bit at that. Which was a good sign, because as much damage as he and Rat had been itching to give out to those tin cans, he knew Ches could do just as good, and unlike them, she probably would not hold back, mainly because she’d want to protect all of the children here from them.

So he decided to play it cooler than he actually felt and give her something that would make her feel a little better about her daughter being so close to bots and help bring the topic away from it. “’N ‘soides, it ain’ loike she can’ take ‘um. I mean yer daughter beat th’ MEKA champion of Junkertown, Wreckin’ Ball, unarmed, without gettin’ so much as a scrape.”

“She what?!” Cheshire blurted.

“You heard me.” He said, “She beat Wreckin’ Ball. Unarmed. Had ‘er first proper Junker one-on-one ‘n said ‘er first death threat ‘n…”

“I swear to Christ, Mako if you didn’ film tha’ for me, I’ll!!” she threatened, a tiny bit playful, but mostly serious as she jabbed at his armor with her hook. The playfulness was a good sign and he decided to keep this good track going.

“Pipsqueak filmed it on ‘er phone. Jus’ loike she’s been filmin’ a lot of what Molly’s been doing…” He paused, “Oh yeah, we prob’ly have footage of ‘er first heist too.”

“I missed ‘er first heist?” Cheshire squeaked, outraged.

“Yeah, we made a game outta it fer ‘er eighth birthday, was th’ main event fer ‘er first birthday bash.”

“I MI-“ she started, only for Roadhog to place his hand on her mask, where her mouth would be and motioned to the people around them, who were kind of giving them looks, “We ain’ alone, Ches, they can’ hear me, but they can hear you.” She nodded slowly and he waited a tick before removing his hand from her mask.

“It’s jus’… I can’ believe I missed ‘er birthday… ‘n I wasn’ there fer ‘er first birthday party…” She sniffled, “’M a horrible Mum…”

“It wasn’ too far back!” He blurted, trying to reassure her and change the topic again as he silently pleaded to various deities for her not to cry, “’Er birthday’s on th’ eleventh of October.”

She was silent for a moment, when she finally could speak, her voice was quiet, but still full of emotion, “…That’s… tha’s th’ day…”

“… Yeah. When I learned when ‘er birthday was, remoinded me ‘bout what ya said back then, ‘bout if ya had a daughter, ya’d name ‘er Molly. After yer sister.”

“I was eight when she was born.” She recalled as she slowly started to curl in on herself, “She was so toiny. So perfect…”

“Oi, yer sister’s gone, but yer daughter’s roight there.” He reminded her, “’N she showed us tha’ Wreckin’ Ball’s actually a hamster named Hammond.”

“… Yer tellin’ a porky.” She accused.

“Nope, struth. One of th’ strangest things I’d ever seen in me loife, after Molls beats ‘im, ‘er dog Bob starts growlin’ ‘n she goes over ta take a look. Next thin’ I know, she starts cryin’ ‘n shoutin’, ‘ME FIRST DEATH THREAT WAS TO A HAMSTER!’”

Cheshire let out a snort of laughter at that as her fingers slipped under the mask to wipe (hopefully) unshed tears away, “She still beat Wreckin’ Ball unarmed, tha’s not somethin’ no one has ever done ‘fore…” She paused, “Wait, how did she do tha’?”

Roadhog silently debated telling her now or waiting until they were in a less public space to discuss this.

“Mac…” Cheshire warned, no playfulness this time.

“Hyde… they made Molly ‘n noinety noine other kids as human weapons.” He said softly, “Molly can read moinds ‘n can move stuff with ‘er moind. It’s how she beat Wreckin’ Ball, crushed tha’ MEKA loike an empty tinny.”

She stood there, silently soaking in the information, “Well, tha’ explains why tha’ Moira cunt keeps whinin’ ‘bout not knowin’ how much Molly can loift now...” she snarled, “’Bout how ‘er ‘hard work’ is goin’ ta waste over ‘ere, fuckin’ slagger…”

He stiffened a bit before he asked, “Tha’ cunt’s in Talon now, so th’ only way you’d know tha’…” He stared at her, furious as he asked, “Ches, did you join those-”

“_No!_” She cried, sounding a bit insulted that he’d even think that, “I work fer Sombra, _not _Talon. You’ve met Sombra, she said she worked with you ‘n Rat for a job in Dorado. She’s gonna help me get payback from Hyde!”

“We did.” He said, he had mixed feelings about her working with Sombra, because, if he had to pick any of those Talon bastards, Sombra was at least someone he knew and somewhat liked. She had morals, she had standards and she cared. At least, she had when they worked with her for that job. And she was good at getting dirt on people to make them do her bidding, (he felt relieved that she had offered to pay them to help her instead of blackmailing them to.) so she would be good at helping Cheshire get pay back on those involved...

But Sombra was still on Talon’s side, even if it was just for the money, it made her an enemy of Overwatch, where they worked. She was smart, she was tech savvy and she never had a problem getting in where she shouldn’t go.

“’M ‘er bodyguard, sorta loike your racket with Rat. So tha’ means where she goes, I go. So when she goes ta those Talon meetin’s, I ain’ far, but I don’ go insoide. I did it once roight after I got this gig, saw tha’ fuckin’ lyin’ cunt ‘n I nearly cut ‘er inta noice bloody pieces.” She turned her head towards the ground, her fists clenched, “But Sombra, Widow ‘n Reaper stopped me ‘n th’ bloke with th’ big ass hand had me kicked outta th’ room. Woulda cut ‘im too, but Sombra said no, ‘n she pays me.”

“Moira could stand then?” He asked, frustrated. He had shot up her legs and broke her hand and face for Christ’s sake! Most people who he did that to died, and while he knew that she was probably going to live even after all that (unfortunately) but he figured they wouldn’t have to deal with her for a while.

“Yeah. Th’ b-“ she stopped when a few more children passed them, “Th’ witch was perfectly foine when I saw ‘er.”

“Think yer off by a letter.” He said with a smile.

“’M off by more than tha’.” She said flatly, making him chuckle a bit before he said, “She made Molly think Widowmaker shootin’ Rat was ‘er fault. Made ‘er cry. So I shot ‘er legs up with scrap, stomped on ‘er hand ‘n smacked ‘er in th’ face with me gun.”

“So ya went easy on ‘er.” Cheshire said darkly.

“Was hopin’ she’d suffer as she slowly bleed out. Wasn’ exactly gonna make Molly see me blast ‘er brains out. ‘N it ain’ my fault she got away. Had a kid ta cheer up ‘n then cheer on as she beat Doomfist with a fuckin’ cop car.”

“… Well tha’ explains Mister Fister’s sling…” She said flatly.

Hog let out a snort, “_Mister Fister_?”

“What? ‘M jus’ sayin’! Why else would ‘e need tha’ thing? It’s not loike it’s replacin’ th’ hand ‘e’s already missin’!” she laughed with him.

Flashes of old times flickered in his head as they laughed for a few more minutes, sitting by fires, chatting in his house, trading quips as they fought bots…

How long had it been since they’d last laughed together like this?

The answer was a bitter one;

Not for a long time.

They calmed down after a bit and he rumbled out, “’Least th’ damage one of us did stuck. Still, wish it would’ve been moine.”

“Jus’ leave it ta me!” Cheshire said with a proud puff of her chest and a thumb pointed towards her heart, “’M gonna fuckin’ slaughter tha’…” she stopped again as a young family passed her by, making him laugh again at the timing of that.

“Th’ rest of us have plenty of suggestions, I’ll get those for ya.” He offered.

“Can ya also get me those videos?” She asked shyily.

“Course.” He said, gently patting her on the back, “I’ll see if ‘Metra can make ya a tablet, we’ll fill it up with all th’ stuff ya missed.”

“Tha’s not all ‘Metra can do!” Rat’s voice called from the comm., making both of them jump, “She, Merc, Nan ‘n Sombra’ve set up a day fer Molly ta meet Ches all proper loike!”

“Really?” Cheshire cried, pressing the comm. deeper into her ear, most likely to make sure she heard every detail.

“Yeah! We’ll doll ‘er all up fer ya ta meet ‘er next Saturday!” Rat declared.

“’N _why_ can’ I meet ‘er proper later tonoight?” Cheshire demanded to know.

“Ya mean ‘soides th’ fact tha’ she’s eoight ‘n after this is past ‘er bedtoime?” He offered.

“Can’ she jus’ sleep in tomorrow?” she whined.

“Nah, most of ‘er friends with ‘er gotta go back home ta other countries tomorrow ‘n she promised ‘um tha’ she’d be there ta say ‘hooroo’ when they get on th’ plane ta head home.” Hog told her, “Also, she stayed up late last noight ta watch movies with th’ other kids.” 

“She barely got up for breaky this mornin’!” Rat laughed, “’N tha’ little sheila loves ‘er food!”

Roadhog watched as Cheshire deflated a bit, obviously torn between wanting to see her little girl and wanting her to be safe and healthy.

“Alroight, next Saturday then…” she agreed, obviously disappointed that she couldn’t get to meet her daughter properly tonight.

He looked over at the kids again, the last members of their group had just finished their doughnut race and all of them ran towards their parents, excitedly asking if they’d seen how well they’d done.

“Da’! Da’!” Molly called as she ran over to them, powdered sugar on her nose and around her mouth, her giant needle tucked under her arm, “Did ya see? I ate moine supah fast!”

He smiled broadly and nodded, as she wouldn’t be able to hear him say, “Yes, yes you did. Good on ya.”

“Oi, Ches, ya moind handin’ Molly th’ comm. fer a tick?” He asked as she finally reached them.

“Hmm? Oh, sure, yeah.” She squeaked, her voice an octave higher than normal with emotion and her body quaking a bit as she carefully pulled the comm. out of her ear and held it out to her daughter, “Y-ya can’ hear ‘im without one of these.”

Molly seemed surprised by the stranger standing next to him talking to her, and probably that they had one of the comm.s so they could hear him. But she quickly got over it and took it with a wide smile and a “Ta!”

Hog got down to his knees (which was actually a bit uncomfortable in this suit) and gently ruffled her hair, making her smile broadly, “Molly, I need you ta listen to me ‘n only answer my questions by noddin’ or shakin’ your head, do you understand?”

She nodded, confused.

“’Member what I promised ‘fore, ‘bout introducin’ ya ta yer Mum when it’s safe?”

She nodded vigorously, her eyes searching wildly through the crowd to see if she could spot her.

“Ya see th’ lady who handed you th’ comm?” Molly’s eyes locked onto Cheshire, her pupils widening and her cowlicks pointing to her like dowsing rods as he told her that, “tha’s yer Mum.”

His little girl looked up at him, unsure of what to do as she quickly began wiping at her mouth with her hands, which surprised him. Normally Molly was all for keeping her face covered in food (so she could eat the leftovers later), but for her to want to clean her face meant something.

She wanted to make a good impression.

She wanted her mum to see her looking her best.

_She wanted her mum to like her. _

“She came all th’ way out ‘ere ta see ya all dressed up fer Halloween, she would’ve been ‘ere fer yer birthday, but she needed ta stop a bunch of bad blokes from comin’ ‘ere. And even though yer Mum wants nothin’ more than ta meet ya roight ‘ere ‘n now, we don’ know if it’s completely safe or not. So we talked it over ‘n decided tha’ we’re gonna wait ta let you two meet proper next Saturday, so we can take ‘nough precautions to know tha’ yer safe.”

Molly stopped wiping at her face and looked up at him, her mouth wide open, ready to ask why they would do that when her mother was right there, only for him to gently put his finger over her mouth, “But, jus’ ‘cause ya can’ meet proper today, don’ mean ya can’ go over there, ask ‘er ta help clean yer face up a bit ‘n give ‘er a hug as thanks.” He told her, “You can give th’ Cowboy ‘is comm. back after.”

Molly’s smile grew so wide and her cowlicks went to their usual heart shape as she went over to her, “’Scuse me.” She said, “C-can ya help me? I ain’ sure if I got it all off.”

Cheshire shakily got down on her knees, “Let’s see ‘ere…” She said softly as she carefully took her daughter’s face in her hands (being extra careful of her hooks). After a moment of what was probably Cheshire engraving her daughter’s face into her mind, she gently wiped a bit of powdered sugar off of her nose.

“Yer all good now, luv!” she told her warmly.

“Thank you!” Molly said before giving her a big hug. Cheshire seemed shocked by the action, but the shock hardly kept her from hugging her baby back.

“I’ll see you soon Mummy.” He heard her say on the comm before she pulled away, her eyes a bit watery as she let go, gave him a hug and told them she’d give McCree his comm. back before running back towards the other children with crimson cheeks.

Roadhog carefully got back onto his feet and lifted Cheshire back up to hers, “S-she called me ‘Mummy’, Mac.” She stammered, her whole body shaking as she grabbed his arm, “She called me ‘Mummy’…” she said as she began to sob.

He gently patted her on the back and let her lean against him as they watched Molly hand McCree’s comm. back to him before going back to play with the other kids.

“Rat, ya moind not elling’ th’ others what I jus’ done?” he asked.

“… Sorry mate.” Rat said, sounding sympathetic, “I know ya promised Molls, but we can’ be sure tha’ it’s safe. ‘N soides, if ya introduce ‘er ‘fore next Saturday, these sheilas’ll have a roight fit.”

“Thanks Rat.”

“Alroight, alroight, you’ll tell Molls, but let Merc tell ya th’ plan first ‘fore ya do tha’.” He added.

“Okay Rat.”

“I dunno, mate, what if she wants you both to get all dressed up for this? I mean, no offense, but I doubt we’d find a suit in your size.” He continued, clearly now just doing this to give him a hard time.

“Rat.”

“Yeah?”

“Don’ push it.”

“Roight, now tha’s settled, ya should prob’ly signal th’ others ta let ‘um know they can come back in.” He said before the comm. clicked off.

Hog sighed as he raised his drill and turned it on, Cheshire backing away and crying out, “Holy shoite! It DOES work!” before he stopped it and put his arm back down, people giving him looks for a moment as Cheshire gushed about how “Tha’ is so ace, Mac!” After that moment, they all realized that he was simply showing off a bit of his costume to someone who was excited about it and went back to what they were doing.

“Please tell me we didn’t miss anything good!” Hana begged.

Hog looked over at Cheshire admiring his drill arm and replied, “Nothin’ we can’ fill ya in on later.”

“You better! Friends don’t keep the good stuff to themselves!” She said firmly.

He soaked in her words before spotting Molly and her new friends waving at him.

“No,” he agreed as he moved his drill arm to show Cheshire the children waving and she bounced on her toes as she waved back and he waved his non-drill hand, “Yer defo roight ‘bout tha’.”


	53. Halloween night ends with a fright

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After someone leaves a nasty threat for Molly on their doorstep, Mercy debates telling Cheshire about this or not and decides to ask Hog.

Angela smiled softly at all the little ones snoozing in Mako’s arms as they made their way towards the base as Hana tapped on her phone to make sure the ride up was paid for as well, she could still feel her concern for his welfare after wearing such heavy armor all night and being unsure how his oxygen supply was in there after the night’s activities, but the cuteness of watching Torb’s four year old grandson, twin six year old granddaughters, Molly, Bob and Hammond curled up in his arms asleep dulled it a little bit.

But only a bit.

He’d never really had to run or anything, the children were sweet enough to wait for him to catch up while trick or treating. But still, they had covered a good bit of ground tonight and she’d overheard Torb and Junkrat during dinner asking Mako to let them know if he needed a moment to rest or anything so they could find something they believed could hold him and the weight of his armor. He’d insisted that he’d be fine, but still, it was ten thirty at night when they finally got back and it would take a while to get all of his heavy costume off. She certainly would make sure there was a big thermos of caffeinated tea for him the next morning when they’d go to see their guests off at the airport.

Still, no matter how concerned she was or how cute the sight was, she was still burning inside that, despite how large their group was, they had only won three categories.

** _ Only three. _ **

With Hana and Molly’s ideas, she personally believed that they had been cheated a bit that Reinhardt was only carrying three trophies into the base. They deserved, like, a hundred at the very least, in her humble opinion, but there were only ten categories with five places each, so she knew that it would be a serious stretch, but ONLY THREE?!

Hammond and Bastion won ‘Most Interesting’. Molly and Mako won ‘Best Matching’. And Fareeha had won ‘Best Costume’…

EVEN THOUGH THEY ONLY PUT SOME STUFF OVER HER RAPTORA AND PUT SOME MAKE UP AND A BLONDE WIG ON HER?!?

Angela was definitely going to need to step up all of their game next year, maybe include the new friends Molly had made, who she was going to have a play date with up here in two days. Their mother certainly seemed up for uping the ante after she watched her children’s massive, well-made costumes only win ‘Best group’, so she was confident that she found a kindred spirit (no pun intended, although it was quite funny that she was dressed as a ghost) to work with next year and was eager to talk to her about ideas for next year as well as to get to know that family a bit more. She had enjoyed their company and they had all been so friendly and nice, she was glad that they’d be seeing them soon.

That wasn’t the only person she met tonight who she’d see later, though.

The other would be Molly’s mother, although the meeting itself had been brief.

She’d walked over to Mako after discussing everything with the others and saw a woman dressed up in a slightly torn and stained cocktail dress, torn stockings, cute heels, a mask and hooks on her hands thanking him for something that was hard to hear from her distance, but she had guessed that she had fallen over or something because of the way she seemed to be leaning on him and her legs were shaking a bit.

Sombra had told them that Cheshire had been dressed in similar clothing and she decided that it would be good to introduce herself as well as make sure that she was alright, it would be awful if Molly’s first meeting with her mother had to be delayed due to an injury.

“Are you alright?” She asked her.

“Uh… yeah, foine. Jus’ lost me balance fer a sec…” the masked woman replied, sounding a bit sheepish as she admitted that, “not used ta heels… shouldn’ve been jumpin’ struth…”

She nodded, understanding. The first Halloween costume that required her to wear heels, she nearly broke her ankle when the shoe suddenly slipped and spun beneath her while she was walking, resulting to her nearly falling down a few narrow steps. Luckily she had managed catch herself on a railing and only got away with sore arms and legs, blisters all over her feet, a slightly sprained ankle and not peeing herself in fear or crying.

But instead of giving her the details, she simply said, “I’ve been there,” and pulled a few blister band-aids she had in her coat pocket (she always had them on her on Halloween after that night) and insist that they go to a nearby bench so she could help her put them on.

She seemed to open her mouth, embarrassed and most likely about to refuse, only for Mako to put his hand on her shoulder and for her to sigh, before nodding and motioning for her to lead the way, Mako walking with them to a nearby empty bench, the area around it far less populated than the area near the stalls, much to her relief as having too many people blocking the dim light would make it difficult to see properly.

She had her sit on it and carefully began inspecting her feet, Mako doing his best to direct the lights on his helmet to help her, as the light of the street lamps could only do so much as she carefully bandaged the blisters around her foot.

Mako let out a sigh and motioned to Cheshire’s foot, she scowled and swatted at him, “Oh, get stuffed, Mac! It fit foine in th’ shop!”

“Yes, but it’s always better to either wear ones that you have already broken in or getting ones that are a big bigger and putting something between the straps and your skin to keep the blisters from forming.” Angela told her, “Luckily these aren’t too bad, none have opened, but still, I’d recommend getting more of this kind of bandage to help cushion them as they heal.”

“Thank you.” She mumbled, still embarrassed but obviously grateful, “Not many people would bothah…”

“Helping a Junker?” she offered, surprising her as she put the last bandage on and releasing her foot, “Well, I’ve never been one to discriminate who should and who shouldn’t get help. Any who are in need of medical attention who I can help, I will help.” She then smiled as she got up and sat on the bench beside her and handed her shoes back to her.

“How-“ she began, looking up to Mako, who then pointed to his helmet.

“I am Dr. Angela Zielger, I am the resident doctor of Overwatch and your daughter’s current pediatrian, but you can call me ‘Mercy’ if you’d feel more comfortable.” She said cheerfully, holding out her hand, “It’s nice to finally meet you! Roadhog has told me all about you!”

“Cheshire.” She said, waiting a beat before taking her hand and giving it a quick shake before letting go and glancing back at Mako for a second before looking back to her, “I doubt he told you everything, but hopefully what he did say was at least nice.”

“He said that you could and would slaughter anything that even thinks about hurting children!” Angela told her, her tone light and chipper.

Cheshire’s eyes lit up behind the mask, before pointing to her and looking to Mako, “I loike this one, Mac, she’s a true Cobber.”

Mako simply nodded and motioned for her to look back at her, which she did.

“I will be there at the meeting next Saturday to go over a few things, such as her medical records, her education, and the interests we’ve seen develop since she’s arrived at the base.” Angela explained, her fingers slowly gathering her skirt into her palms with her fingertips as she spoke. “There are a few… unpleasant things we believe you should know, both about her past treatment by…” She nearly said a few words in Swiss German that she felt actually described Hyde, but instead she cleared her throat of the venomous insults and said, “_them._ Things that left both physical and psychological scars that, as her mother, you have the right to know about, but I’ll try to get that information to you before or after the meeting. I wouldn’t want to ruin it by putting us both in foul moods.”

“… Sooner would prob’ly be bettah then,” she said, pulling a phone out of a pocket of the dress, surprising her.

“Yeah, I was surprised too, glad it has pockets, struth. Hate wearin’ anythin’ without at least one pocket.” She explained, her voice cheerful.

“Molly insists that all of her clothing should have pockets too, I guess now I know where she gets it.” she chuckled before the two exchanged numbers, Cheshire seeming a bit giddy at the news that they had that in common as well as gaining a new phone number in her phone.

Right after that the costume contest judges informed everyone that they would be announcing winners in a few minutes and Cheshire took this as her cue to leave, thanking her once again before she gently smacking Mako’s armored arm and waved good bye.

A ding from her phone snapped her out of her flashback, it was Cheshire’s reply to the photo of Molly and Mako winning ‘Best Matching’ she’d taken and sent to her earlier;

‘They only won one?! Fucking bullshit!’

Angela quickly and happily typed out how much she agreed and sent it before she heard Reinhardt over the comms say, “We have a situation by the front door. Junkrat, can you come here please? We may have a possible explosive.”

“On it.” Junkrat’s voice said with a cackle, Angela turned to see him saying something to Satya and watched as blue wirecutters came into existence. He smiled and thanked her with a peck on the cheek that made her face turn bright red before heading up to Reinhardt, Torb, Ingrid, Ana and Morrison’s location.

“Let’s see what we got ‘ere!” He said as he hopped over, freezing in his spot as he looked down at the ground before his face was pulled into a furious scowl and he quickly tore open the box without a care before he announced, “It ain’ a bomb.” With a growl.

“There’s always next time, partner.” McCree said with a chuckle.

“There bettah not be.” He said, “’Cause this is worse than a bomb. It’s…”

“It’s an electric shaver.” Reinhardt revealed, “And the box was addressed to ‘M011’ with no return address, but if they had sent it to the base, it would have been sent to our PO box. So that means…” He didn’t finish his sentence.

He didn’t have to.

Angela felt as if she was going to be sick.

_They had been here. _

They had been here, on the island. _In front of their home_.

The person in question probably dropped the package off when they had taken the little ones trick or treating by the residential areas and came back around the time they had returned, stalking among the crowds, probably searching for Molly through throngs of costumed children… She clutched at her sides, the warm, tropical air seeming to cool around her as she wondered if the person who dropped this off had looked around the base for possible entry points…

Mein Gott, what if they had been here for a while and only chose now to announce themselves? What if they already had a good idea of how to snatch Molly away and was just toying with them now?

“Um…” Oscar called as he carefully approached the elders of the group,“What’s going on?”

“Someone sent Molly a threat.” Morrison said, his voice low and angry.

“A threat?” He repeated.

“They sent an electric razor.” Ana revealed to those without comms, “The last time she heard one here, she immediately started screaming and grabbing at her head.”

“We found ‘er curled up in a ball on th’ floor, sobbin’ ‘n shakin’ uncontrollably.” Lena continued for her, her voice soft and a bit shaken at the memory as she clutched at her girlfriend’s hand, “She was holdin’ ‘er head, screamin’ as if she was in pain whenever any of us tried to reach for ‘er while it was still on. Even after Roadhog crushed it in his hands ‘n showed her th’ broken pieces, she was still tremblin’ for th’ rest of th’ day ‘n flinched away from us all whenever we reached for her.”

Angela clutched at herself tighter as she remembered Molly’s fearful form in a fetal position on the ground, the sounds of her wailing and the pained shrieks she let out when she reached to her to see what was wrong, trying to ask her if she was hurt and not getting much more than more than more crying in reply.

The fear in her eyes when she jerked away from her arm after she bent down to check to see that she was physically okay after collapsing to the floor since she didn’t seem to hear her when she asked if she was hurting anywhere when she finally calmed down…

Not that Molly could’ve told her much anyways, it happened a few weeks after they had brought her home, so her vocabulary was pretty minimal at the time, but she didn’t need to say much to show just how scared she had been and just how deep the scars Hyde had left were.

After that incident, Mako had been a very determined man on a mission, gathering every electric razor in the place, as well as anything else that made that sound (Mei and Fareeha were a bit cross with him for that), duct taped them all together and handed them over to Junkrat, telling him, “You know what ta do.”

Which, apparently meant ‘strap a huge amount of explosives to them, hand a seven year old a denonator and tell her to teach those things a lesson they’d never forget. Then laugh like a mad man when she pressed the button and blew them up in a blast that was so much overkill no one else on base could even… ’

After that, Mako and Junkrat somehow managed to get her to go close enough to the blast sight to stomp on where the offending objects had once sat.

Then, after a while of getting her comfortable with that, they got her to jump on it.

It didn’t take long after that before Athena made an announcement to everyone that Molly was going to ‘bask in her victory properly’. Which apparently, to the two Junkers, meant the three of them would dance on the electric razor’s blast site ‘grave’ to Queen’s ‘We are the Champions’ (although Lúcio later admitted that the musical selection had been up to him after he overheard Mako and Junkrat talking about it). Which was both disturbing and silly.

It didn’t lessen her fear of the sound or the device as far as they knew, since no one had brought one in since then, but the elder Junkers’ actions did seem to make her feel better and she seemed much more confident as she explored the base after seeing the lengths they would go to make her feel safe and comfortable (although she still had no idea how Molly could feel comfortable with all those giant bear traps around her bed…).

When she could finally speak well enough, Molly explained to them that the sound meant that a ‘white coat’ would be hunting for one of them or already had one in a corner, that one of them would have that thing scratch at their head, their world go black and, if you were lucky, to wake up with a bunch of things in their arms and for your head to hurt and for you to be sent back to your safe while your limbs felt all wiggly.

And if they weren’t so lucky, it meant you would never wake up ever again.

After she told them that, everyone but her, Angela (double checking the medical records to see just how often they’d made Molly feel that fear) and Junkrat (building more bombs) went into town, bought every electric razor they could find, strapped more explosives to them and after blowing them up, they all had a big dance party on the ‘grave’.

Efi looked at Bob, then to Orisa and then asked, “Wait, what about Bob? In Orisa’s report on the Pet Shop incident, she said that they had been picking Bob up from the groomers when Dr. O’Deorain showed up. Wouldn’t she have freaked out then too? A groomers would have those things, wouldn’t they?”

“Junkrat dropped Bob off at the Groomers himself a little after we got there, we made sure Molly didn’t go in at the start, we had her focus on making a collar tag for Bob while he dropped him off.” Mei explained, “I went in with him because the sign outside said we needed to give them proper paperwork that Bob’d had his shots and we didn’t have anything like that...”

“Why not?” Efi asked.

“We literally picked him off the streets earlier that morning.” Genji said with a sheepish smile and a shrug, “We were so excited to buy him things that we kinda forgot to go to the vet first.”

“He still hasn’t been to the vet.” Hanzo reminded him.

“He’s been to Angie’s office a lot!” Genji offered.

“We both know that does not count as he was not in there for a check up or treatment for himself!” Hanzo shot down.

“Anyway,” Mei continued, stopping the argument there, “He asked them if it was alright if they could hide their shavers when we came to pick Bob up. He told them that Molly was very sensitive to the sound and that we wanted her to have a nice day spoiling her new puppy. One of the Managers there had a son who was sensitive to that sound as well and they were very nice about the whole thing... and about Bob not having the proper paperwork because he managed to calm another dog down that was close to biting one of the workers while we were talking…”

“That’s our Bob.” McCree said, “Calmin’ down critters ‘n pissin’ on bad guys.”

“… I was wondering about why that was mentioned in your report.” Efi said as she looked to Orisa. Meanwhile Oscar and his two older nieces (the only two who were still awake) looked at the front door as Morrison began ushering them all inside where they would ‘discuss this later’.

They all quickly made their way inside, Satya quickly collecting Junkrat away from the offending package and leading him further inside, Mako walking past it, as if it was nothing, with the other parents not too far behind him. Ana and Ingrid offered to take the little ones off of his hands to help them change into their pajamas and so he could change out of his costume. Mako was silent for a moment before nodding and carefully holding the little ones out for them.

Fareeha and Brigitte were flagged down by their mothers, and quickly walked over to help lessen the load. After a few minutes of slow, careful movements, each of them was given a twin to carry further inside to change and sleep, Fareeha was given Bob and Brigitte was given Hammond. Once they made sure that they had good holds on all of them, they wished everyone a good night and made their way towards the common room.

Ana carefully scooped Molly up and Ingrid collected her grandson from Mako’s arms and told him that they would take care of them for him, “You go change,” Ana suggested, “It must be stifling in there.”

Mako said nothing before nodding and then gently patting his daughter’s head. He then made his way to the workshop, without making a sound, his hands loose at his sides, his body language relaxed and his footsteps quiet all for the clank of the metal moving on his body and the jingling of his chain.

“I-is he going to be alright?” Angela asked the elder women once he walked around a corner and out of sight.

“Well, if after a long time of worrying about my young child’s safety and enjoying a fun time only for someone to leave a threat like that at my door…” Ana began thoughtfully, only for Ingrid to say, in a sweet, cheerful tone that, “I’d ask Torby to make a security system that would completely and utterly destroy any Skitstövel who came to harm my babies!”

“I would just go over all the ways to break someone to Fareeha again and sleep by the front door with my gun, but that works too.” Ana said with a shrug, pausing for a moment to say, “Or maybe have her stay at Reinhardt’s for the rest of the night, just in case it gets messy…”

Ingrid nodded, “Agreed! Blood is such an annoying thing to get out of the carpet! And it would always happen the day before of the day that you’d have company over! I can’t tell you how many times I thanked God that Reinhardt would take the children out for a ‘surprise’ to keep them from seeing the gastly messes people would leave!” she recalled, a frown on her face as she seemed to recall bloody scenes apparently left in her living room.

“And it would always be the one day that those urgent carpet cleaning services would be closed and you’d be on your hands and knees scrubbing and praying that you’d get the carpet cleaned up before he got back with the children.” Ana confirmed, an annoyed look on her face as she seemed to recall crime scenes she’d have to clean up before her daughter would come home.

Angela stared at them for a moment, concerned, while Winston quietly slipped past them with the package under his arm, doing his best not to wake the psychic child in the hallway by tip toeing the best he could. After he passed them, Angela finally said, “I’m going to go change…” and quickly fled towards her room, her phone buzzing in her pocket. She finally pulled it out once inside her room to see that Cheshire had replied again.

She pulled her wig off and pushed at the sweaty loose strands that clung to the back of her neck for a moment, letting out a small sigh of relief before she looked at the message, “Too right! Oh, well, guess we’ll just have to put our heads together for next year.”

Angela stared at the message for a moment, contemplating telling Cheshire what they had just arrived home to or not before putting her phone down onto a side table to charge with a sigh as she slid her fingers through the sweaty strands that stuck to her face and forehead.

Even though she had a right to know, she’d rather tell her about it when they had some information on the person who sent the threat… Or to just be able to tell her that they’d caught the guilty person and had gotten more out of him.

But still, she had no idea how Cheshire would react to the news…

Well, no. That wasn’t exactly true.

She’d probably be angry at the threat, which was completely understandable, and she’d most likely demand to know everything about what happened when they got back.

But would she let them gather more information after telling her this and let them take care of it? Or would she take matters into her own hands and stain them with the blood of the one who threatened her child?

The only baby she could ever claim as completely hers that she probably saw for the first time tonight?

As much as she hoped that Cheshire would let them handle this, she felt anger melt away the chills and numbness from the shock she felt earlier. She certainly would be furious and have a hard time accepting letting someone else handle it, but Angela _would_ probably stay out of it and let someone else take care of it. She would focus on other things, it would be more than just difficult, but she could and would.

But she was _not _Cheshire.

She hardly knew much about the woman, but from what she did know, she would have no problem hunting the person down. Then she’d probably kill them. Leaving them with no new information to keep this from happening again. Nor finding out how exactly they came here or why they decided to deliver the package to the base tonight and in person.

But she shouldn’t be quick to judge, for all she knew, Cheshire might try to torture information out of the cruel delivery person. But to find them, Sombra would probably help her gather information to be sure it was the right person and they might get information about how to get up close to the base without being detected, something they didn’t need a higher up in Talon knowing about…

She carefully changed into her pajamas as the possible problems from informing Cheshire continued to pop up in her head like nightmares after watching a scary movie.

But she told Cheshire that she would inform her about the trauma Molly had been through and this was a big threat, most likely from Hyde, now that she was thinking about it, using something they had once tortured Molly with back when she didn’t have a name.

And they didn’t even use her name! They still called her M011! Practically denying her humanity while threatening to crack her skull open in one go!

Honestly, she was uncertain if she would even feel bad if Cheshire killed the person who left that message now! Unless they were just some innocent wrapped up in all of this without knowing… But still, who would leave a package for a well known old Overwatch base with such an odd combination of letters and numbers?! But for all they knew, they could’ve just assumed Winston had a specimen name… But…

But! BUT! ABER _ABER_ **_ABER_**!!!

** _Ugh! _ **

To tell or not to tell?

_Eine so einfache Frage, aber schwer zu beantworten!_

She pulled her hair free from the bun she put it in and brushed it out before brushing her teeth, all the while she debated telling or not in German to her reflection in her bathroom mirror and got nowhere closer to deciding. She did get specks of toothpaste on her mirror and some toothpaste foam on her pajamas while doing that, though.

Perhaps she could ask the other mothers here for their opinions?

She fell back onto her bed, her mind reeling as she considered it.

Hm… perhaps, but many of them were quite exhausted from rounding up all of their children and would be helping their grumpy charges change, and the chances of the younger ones hearing about this and Molly finding out about it would increase…

Perhaps just Ana and Ingrid? They were the most experienced with parenting and very good at reading and understanding people… And well, with all that talk of blood on the carpet earlier, it was possible they could understand Cheshire more than she could…

… Wait, wasn’t she overlooking something here?

Like, the fact that Molly didn’t only have a mother, but a father too?

A father who knew her mother better than anyone else?

Angela pulled herself back up into a sitting position and let her feet dangle off the side of her bed. Mako was probably out of his costume by now, or at the very least, almost out of it. Perhaps she could check on him and discuss her thoughts about if they should tell Cheshire about this or not just yet.

Feeling the sweet relief of a mind made up, she pushed off of the bed and walked towards the workshop, stopping when she saw Torbjörn and Junkrat putting pieces of Mako’s costume in boxes with the man in question nowhere to be found. They stopped when they saw her in the doorway, a bit surprised at her presence there.

“After what happened, I wanted to see how Roadhog was feeling.” She explained.

“Ah, moight wanna check on ‘im in th’ mornin’.” Junkrat advised, “’E’s madder than a cut snake roight now, even went ta th’ trainin’ grounds ta blow off some steam.”

“I see.” She said, “Thank you for the warning.”

“That means she’s still going ta try ta check on him.” Torb translated, looking concerned.

“Loike I said, jus’ leave ‘im fer now.” Junkrat repeated, his tone stern, “Trust a bloke who knows, when Roadie gets loike tha’, it’s bettah fer yer safety if ya give ‘im some space.”

“I just want to ask if we should tell Cheshire about…” Angela started, only for Junkrat to leap into her personal space and grab her arms, his expression fierce and fearful at the same time.

“Unless ya want a blood bath on yer hands ‘n all over th’ streets of Gibraltah, ya can’ tell Cheshire ‘bout this. Not now, anyway. Roadie’ll prob’ly tell ya th’ same thing. Don’. Tell. Cheshire. Nothin’.” He insisted, “Honestly ya should prob’ly leave tha’ stuff ta ‘im anyways, ‘e’s got a bettah chance than th’ rest of us ta be able ta tell ‘er any of th’ stuff Molls’ been through ‘n gettin’ away from ‘er in one piece ‘n aloive.”

“… Alright.” Angela finally agreed, deciding to ask Mako about it tomorrow after they got back from the airport. Junkrat let go at her words and took a step back, pleased that he had gotten through to her.

“But I still want to check on Roadhog.” She told him.

“Then do it from a distance.” Torb advised, “He’s not in a good place right now, Angie. Let him let it all out fer ‘is sake if not for yours.” Junkrat nodded in agreement.

“I’ll grab some of my binoculars from my bag and use those, then.” She said, looking from one to the other to see if they approved of her plan or not.

After a moment or two, they seemed to accept it but Junkrat insisted on reminding her once more to not get near him before she left.

She was halfway down the hall when she heard Torb telling him to go have Satya help him remove his costume so he could rest up too, they would all have to get up early tomorrow and his attitude went from worried to chipper in seconds. She smiled as she could practically hear the skip in his step as he dashed out of the room and called out a ‘Hooroo, mate!’ to Torbjörn.

It was mostly because the sound of his peg leg clacking around was hard to miss, but there was a skip in his uneven steps that no one could miss and she found his excitement to spend some extra time with his girlfriend to be sweet.

She went to her office and collected her binoculars from her bag before making her way to the training grounds, the sounds of the training bots’ usual ‘ow. Ow. OW.’ when hit was replaced with the whizzing of his chain flying throught the air, the loud bangs of his scrap gun, the sounds of smashing metal against pavement and finally, explosions.

Angela was so glad that not only had Junkrat warned her not to get too close, but that the children were all on the other side of the base and couldn’t hear all the noise he was making as he probably destroyed the training bots in horribly violent ways…

She peaked out the door towards the training grounds, looked for the biggest thing she could find and focused her binoculars on it.

She watched as he hooked a training bot with ease, pulled it over, shot it full of holes and then threw it on the ground, stomping on it and making it explode, pieces of it scattering around to join the rest of the rubble by his feet. The blast seeming to not even register to him as he hooked another one, the parts of his face she could see were red with rage. His knuckles were white as he pulled the training bot close, and they were white on the trigger as he pulled it. She could hear his huffing and puffing even from her place so far away as he stomped on the second one, his breathing seeming to be labored despite how easy and fluid his movements were.

He had hooked another one before he suddenly seemed to be unable to breathe and fell to his knees, coughing and wheezing while somehow still managing to smash the training bot against the ground three times before he was on his hands and knees, gasping for breath.

“Mako!” she cried, rushing over to him, her binoculars bouncing against her chest as she ran.

Once she reached him, he managed to go back to coughing again and resumed smashing what was left of the training bot against the ground again, the high pitched ‘ow. Ow. OW!’ echoing through the empty training grounds.

“Mako!” She shouted, grabbing his arm, “Stop! You need to stop!”

He snarled and turned to her, his grey eyes devoid of their usual warmth or calm and replaced with a swirling storm filled with rage, fury and a desire for carnage, his huffing and puffing seeming to only fuel the storm, not the rest of him. Angela looked at him, while the sight of it shocked her, she wasn’t afraid.

No, if anything, she was actually kind of annoyed. Mako “Roadhog” Rutledge was not going to scare her off when he needed her help! She didn’t care how angry he was or how easily he could crush her right now.

_Sie würde ihm helfen, ob er es mag oder nicht._

“MAKO, I SAID STOP!” she shouted, her words seeming to echo around the training area, storm behind the lenses of his mask finally dying out, his breathing seeming to become a little less labored as his hand released the mashed up training bot and it tilted away from him and rolled over to it’s dented side.

“Thanks…” He managed, sucking a few more breaths to allow himself to speak without huffing and puffing before saying, “But tha’ was a really fuckin’ stupid thing ta do. I could’ve…”

“But you didn’t.” She pointed out, smiling softly, “You could have, but you didn’t. As dangerous as you can be, you don’t hurt people you care about… except for Junkrat on occasion.”

“It was still stupid. Even if I didn’ mean ta, I still could’ve hurt ya or been th’ reason you got hurt. Ya need ta be more careful, Angie.” He looked at his hands, “’Specially with me.”

He was right, technically, he was a powerhouse who could easily crush her to death and he could have hurt her while simply just destroying the training bots, pieces could have hit her or she could have gotten burned…

But despite all of that, she only could really think about one thing;

“… Did you just call me Angie?” She asked.

“Hmm?” He said, pulling his eyes away from his hands, “What?”

“You called me Angie.” She said.

Mako’s face and ears turned red and he looked back down to his hands, “Uh… yeah, sorry. Should’ve asked first…”

“No, it’s quite alright.” She told him, feeling her own cheeks warm up, “I’m fine with you calling me that.”

He looked at her for a moment, shocked, before mumbling out, “’Kay then. I’ll do tha’.”

The two sat in a slightly awkward silence for a moment before Angela stood up and dusted off her pajama pants, “Well then, now that we have that settled, I’d like to get a good look at your lungs before you go to bed, just to be sure you’re alright.”

He let out a groan, but got up and followed her towards the door into the base without argument or a single word in complaint. He only stopped once in the doorway staring at her.

“Mako?” she called, confused as to why he suddenly stopped, “Is something wrong? Are you having trouble breathing again?”

“Nah.” He said simply before rubbing the back of his neck, “Jus’ thanks fer tonoight. Not jus’ with me, but with Ches ‘n Molly too. Really appreciate it.”

She smiled at him, “Anytime.” She promised before rubbing her arm, “You know, I was going to ask if we should tell Cheshire about this or not…”

“Not yet.” Mako said flatly, “She’d paint th’ town red in th’ worst way, best ta wait ‘til we know more.”

He then walked into the base, quietly closing the door behind him, “But I do wanna talk ta Molly ‘bout what happened after th’ other kids are on th’ plane. She has th’ roight ta know ‘bout this ‘n it’s probl’y best tha’ she does for ‘er sake. Don’ want ‘er hearin’ it in one of our heads ‘n think we don’ trust ‘er or somethin’. Want ta make sure she knows tha’ we ain’ gonna pull th’ wool over ‘er eyes jus’ ‘cause it’s ‘bout somethin’ scary. This involves ‘er ‘n I want ta know how she feels ‘n what she wants to do. If she wants ta stay in ‘ere ‘til it’s safe, we’ll do tha’… but I have a feelin’ tha’ she’s too much loike ‘er Mum ta go fer tha’.”

“You mean, you think she’ll want to take this person head on?” Angela asked, her stomach twisting at the thought.

“Not now.” He assured her, “She’s still too young ‘n inexperienced ta do tha’, ‘n she knows it, she ain’ a drongo. But th’ ninjas have been teachin’ ‘er ‘bout usin’ a sword ‘n Ana’s been teaching ‘er self defense. I think we should push back some of ‘er more academic lessons fer a bit. Teach ‘er more ways ta defend ‘erself, weapons trainin’, teachin’ ‘er ta build things ta help ‘er escape danger, tha’ koinda thing. Figure I can ask th’ others in th’ morning while th’ kids are eatin’ ‘fore we head ta th’ airport.”

“I think that’s a wonderful idea!” She beamed, pleased not only had she been able to talk to him about all this and get a well thought out answer, but that he was also planning to be upfront and honest with both mother and daughter (although mother would be informed later than daughter) and find ways to make sure Molly stayed and felt safe, even with the people who used to torture her daily so close.

Mako simply blushed and rubbed the back of his head with one hand, “Well, had ta keep meself under control after seein’ th’ razor, don’ wanna be swearin’ too much in front of th’ ankle boiters. So I figured I’d think of a plan ‘til I was let out of tha’ can I was stuffed in ‘n then let off some steam.”

“So that’s why you were so quiet! I thought you were planning how you would murder them for threatening Molly.” She said.

“A bloke can do two things.” He replied with a shrug.

“Let’s focus on keeping Molly safe.” She suggested.

“Foine, can’ promise Rat or Ches won’ plan somethin’.” He relented.

“I can live with that.” She said, gently taking his hand, “Come on, let’s get a look at your lungs.”

But instead of the sound of his usual grunt or a groan, he let out a surprising squeak, his ears red as he quickly cleared his throat, “Sure.”

Angela did her best to keep her giggles behind a serene expression as she led him to her office, enjoying the warmth from his hands as they walked.


	54. Caught with 'is pants down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rat learns that he'll be joining Mercy and Molly for the meeting with Cheshire instead of Hog, D.Va and Symmetra take him out clothes shopping to help him blend in and Symmetra learns what the term 'free snaking' means.

Junkrat had sat guard with McCree and Genji after dropping Torb and Brigitte’s family and Efi and her parents off at the airport (he hated airports, honestly, everyone here has a huge problem with bombs and those are usually most of his luggage along with stolen treasure) while Roadhog took Molly aside to a little table in the food court and told Molly about the stupid fucking… _he couldn’t even fucking say the words right now!!_

Needless to say, she had been pretty upset about the fact that those fucking bastards left a threat like that to her on their front doorstep and it took her Dadhog buying her a strawberry milkshake, Bob kisses and a fast ride home on his bike to calm down.

Apparently he talked to her about her options on what she would do. Stay inside and hide or learn how to fight back because _fuck those bastards_!!

To Rat’s joy and relief, Molly picked the fun one.

After that, Winston began laying out a new lesson plan so she would have more lessons in defending herself and causing pain and still have a few lessons every week to teach her the things she’d need to know, reading, writing, math, science…

Everyone else began Operation: Mama Meet Up. (Pipsqueak thought up the name)

First, there was figuring out where they would meet. Molly would want to bring Bob and introduce her mum to him and apparently there weren’t many places in town where one could do that. Pipsqueak and Ana had Athena check which ones did before scouting the places themselves.

After they returned, they spent what seemed like forever fussing over every little detail of the place, things like atmosphere, staff and menus and had everyone try some things they brought back to see how they liked them.

Once they finally decided on a place, every female in Overwatch (even Orisa) and Bob were in Molly’s room, helping her pick out different dresses to wear and what they would do with her hair (the bald spots weren’t as bad anymore, and Molly didn’t really seem to mind them much unless brought up, but she wanted to look nice and hiding the bald spots seemed like a good idea) and how they could make Bob get all dressed up too.

The next day all the girls minus Molly and the bot had dragged him into his room and began going through his drawers and closet and breaking some interesting news to him while looking at every article of clothing he had with critical eyes.

“Wait, wait, so why ‘m I goin’ ta th’ meetin’ with Cheshire with Molly, Bob ‘n Merc? Shouldn’ Roadie be goin’?” he asked, confused. He had made it very clear which of the male Junkers here Cheshire liked better, so why the fuck was he going?

“In this case, no. He stands out far too much, and while the people here haven’t really bothered to be concerned about the two of you running around since you both have stayed out of trouble and even have gone out of your way to stop it, if they see Cheshire and Roadhog together and have read a textbook within the past fifteen years, they’ll recognize them as a threat and you two will have to stay in the base if you don’t want to be arrested.”

“Textbook?” Rat repeated, “Th’ ALF is in textbooks now?”

“After what happened, it would be hard for them not to be.” Mei pointed out, “No one knew what would happen if you tried to blow up an Omnium before they did.”

“Bettah not be spewin’ shite ‘bout them while they’re at it.” He growled.

“Define shit.” Pharah said plainly.

“Th’ shite people always say ‘bout Junkers.” He replied plainly, “’N prob’ly somethin’ in there ‘bout Roadie ‘n Ches bein’ terrorists or somethin’ stupid loike tha’ loike they do in Oz.”

“… Yeah, you and Molly are _not_ going to be happy when she gets her middle school history textbooks.” Hana informed them.

Note to Rat from Rat: help Molly burn her history textbooks when she’s older.

“We can rewrite history later.” Ana said sternly, “Right now, let’s focus on the meeting. Do you have any more formal clothing than this?”

“A shirt’s not formal ‘nough?” He replied, surprised that his recent acts of throwing on a shirt didn’t count as formal.

“Not even close, luv.” Lena said in an apologetic tone.

“Not wearin’ a suit ta see Cheshire.” He said plainly, “Love Molls ‘n all, but I’ll burn a suit ‘fore I wear one for Cheshire.”

“Would you wear one for me?” Satya asked, curious.

He felt his cheeks and ears heat up as he pictured her in some of the fancy dresses he’d seen in her closet on his arm in a fancy party for a moment. As much as he’d hate being stuffed into a suit, dealing with suits and the most likely boring conversations as the only entertainment other than dancing, seeing her all dolled up (cause she always looked amazing in whatever she wore, she could probably wear Hana’s bunny… think she called it a onsie, and he would still probably kneel at her feet for her to step on him because she would still look bloody gorgeous) and beautiful and sexy and just CRASH FUCKING HOT and only looking at him like something out of Hog’s books?

** _ Bloody hell yes.  _ **

He’d bitch about it a lot and he’d have to fight himself to not rip off the tie and burn it, but he’d gladly toss his Junker rep in the toilet for a night or two for her to be all happy and stunning and for him to stick it to all those suit fuckers who hit on her before.

Sorry, not sorry, ya wankers! She prefers her men slightly crispy with an Aussie accent!

Note to Rat from Rat: And a nice ass!

_And a nice ass!_

“…Yeah…” He finally admitted, his face now burning as if he’d stuck his head in the forge…

Actually, that sounded pretty good right about now as the girls snickered at his honesty. Satya smiled broadly as she quickly walked over to him to help lessen the embarrassment and told him that she was very happy to hear it and that the next time she was to go to a function, she would be happy to bring him as her date.

_That_ made him perk up again before she began gently stroking his face with her fingers and cooing to him in her native tongue, turning him into putty as Brigitte brought them all back to the task at hand, “Well, if we can’t find anything we think would look right, why don’t Hana and Satya go shopping with him to find something that does? They can pick up a suit for him while they’re at it.”

He was too busy being happy at his girlfriend’s attention to bother commenting on the last sentence the armor smith said.

With that decided, Satya made a high storage tablet to give to Cheshire and he sat with Ana, Mercy, Hog and Winston as they went over the data they felt they could share with Cheshire without her going on a rampage.

Although, ever since the day after Halloween, Hog and Mercy would do daily calls with her to tell her things that they knew would make her angry, so Rat didn’t know why they’d worry too much when they were already talking about it with her, but then again, how much of the bad things could they tell her in a week? They didn’t seem to stay on it for too long before they’d start talking about the meeting on Saturday. At least, as far as he knew, the only one he’d overheard had them telling her a few of the things Hyde did with Cheshire ranting and raving about all the horrible things she’d do once she’d got her hands on the bastards who hurt her baby. That was about ten minutes long with Cheshire mostly flipping out before Mercy changed the subject and began talking about sending her pictures of all these clothes they took of Molly while they was shopping way back when that Hyde cunt held the girls hostage in a shop. Saying that Molly had been over the moon to find clothes that would have her match him and Hog and how happy she’d been when Genji had gotten her shoes that glowed when she took steps so they could both be glowing together.

“Imagine how happy she’d be if she and her Mama were wearing matching clothes!” She had gushed, “I’ll send you everything! I believe a few of the stores here have adult collections so parents and children can match, I’ll send you the names of the ones we went to so you can order online if you would like!”

“Tha’d be ace, thank you so much! I’ll see if Sombra can help me with tha’…” Cheshire began, only to be interrupted by the sound of gunshots going off in the background.

“Ches, what th’ fuck was tha’?” Hog asked.

“Well, looks loike _tha’_ negotation backfoired.” Cheshire sighed.

“Negotation?” Mercy repeated.

“Yeah, Doomfist wanted Sombra ‘n Reaper ‘n Widow ‘n th’ _witch_ ta come out fer a chat with this Ashe sheila in th’ US. Never seen someone try so hard ta look loike a cowgirl in me loife.” She huffed, obviously unimpressed.

“Ashe, as in, Deadlock’s leader?” Mercy asked, concerned.

“Yeah, think tha’s what this group’s called. She’s a whiny thing. Said if I knicked anything she’d kill me.” Cheshire scoffed, “Told ‘er tha’ I’d beaten up tougher bastards than ‘er when I was in primary school ‘n tha’ if she thought she could foight me loike a big girl without ‘er little wind up toy bodyguard, then I’d be happy ta take ‘er outsoide ‘n show ‘er how much of a fuckin’ drongo she is.”

“’N you said this to ‘er face?” Hog asked.

“More or less. I used more Aussie lingo ‘n swearin’, ‘n I moight of called ‘er a bot lovin’ cunt a few times.” She clarified. They heard a sip and a few more gunshots, “Either way, I koinda pissed ‘er off as well as Mister Fistah.” Rat bit back a snort at the nickname and heard Hog and Mercy snicker too as she continued on to explain that, “So ‘e promised ‘er tha’ I wouldn’ be going ta th’ meetin’, ‘n tha’s why ‘m out ‘ere, in their wanna be cowboy bandit bar underground ‘n th’ others are apparently havin’ all the fun in ‘er ‘office’.”

“You could help.” Hog reminded her.

“Yeah, I could.” She agreed, “but I told Sombra ta leave one of ‘er little teleporter thingys in th’ car ‘n ta go there if this Ashe brat starts a blue. If she listened, ‘n she’d better have, ‘m jus’ waitin’ fer th’ others ta get ‘ere, ‘cause she made me promise to even though my job description only requires me ta only keep ‘er from carkin’ it, ‘n then…”

“_CHESHIRE WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?! WE NEED YOUR HELP!!_” Reaper’s voice snapped through the phone as the gunshots got louder.

“Foine, foine.” Cheshire dismissed before saying, “Sorry, but ‘m gonna have ta call ya back.” Mercy looked as if she was about to ask her to be careful, but Hog put his arm put in a silent, but respectful request to let him handle it.

“Don’ make too much of a mess. Less bastards trackin’ ya, th’ better.” He warned.

“Don’ I know it. Hoo roo!” she said before hanging up.

Rat didn’t know for sure if Mercy and Hog passed on the info about the meeting to the ape, but he did know that not too long after the call, McCree was called into his lab.

And if he was remembering right, the cowboy was part of this ‘Deadlock’ racket at some point too, so he was betting that they did tell the ape about it. He didn’t know why it was important, after all it didn’t sound like they got this deal they had gone there for and it sounded like they wouldn’t be invited back any time soon…

But then again, it sounded like Cheshire had pissed that Ashe sheila off and for all they knew, it could mean another stack of cash slapped onto her bounty. And the more wristies after her, the more wristies would be after Molly to get to her.

_Fuck._

That’s just what they needed; more people coming after their happy little Vegemite.

Oh well, nothing they could do about it now except be extra careful when Molly went to her playdate.

Hog was a bit pissed that he’d actually have to follow the speed limits and shite on the way there with Molly and Bob in his side car, but as difficult as it would be for anyone to hit them going as fast as he liked, the moment they stopped would be all a good sniper would need, helmet or not. So as much as he hated it, he’d assured 76 and Ana that he would be a safe, law-abiding driver so a few of them could keep him and Molly in sight while they made their way to the playdate.

Molly’d had a ripper of a time; she’d played games she’d never played before, she’d eaten food she’d never tasted before, they’d all thoroughly adored her doggy and she was happy that her Dadhog and her friends’ parents seemed to have gotten along pretty well too. She didn’t tell him about it until the next day, as Hog brought her back curled up in his arm with Bob, the two of them fast asleep, worn out from all the fun they’d had.

After Molly had told him all about what she’d done the day before, he hopped into the shower, got dressed (and put on a shirt. No shirt no bloody service after all) and leapt into a car with Satya and Pipsqueak to that leisure center Genji had mentioned before, the cyborg pointing out that it would be harder for anyone to attack them from the inside of it. He sat in the back with the girls in the front, keeping his girlfriend from slamming her head into the window (because for some reason she thought the front seat would be safer), he felt a bit off that he was in Hana’s car without Lúcio being there with him and Pipsqueak, as he had been in the car with the two of them every time he’d gotten a ride into town from her. And honestly, he would have liked having a fellow male on the trip with him, but the guy left a few hours after Torb’s family and Efi did after getting a call from his mother about another one of his sister’s being in labor… two months early, so Rat wasn’t going to ask he stick around (even if he knew he’d be at the meeting instead of Hog and that the girls would take him clothes shopping too).

He hopped on the first plane he could to Brazil, Molly insisting they pick out a nice toy for the baby before he left, which seemed to help calm him down before the flight. And while Lúcio had not only informed them that both the sister and the baby were fine and that he’d be back before Molly’s meeting on Saturday, Hana had been a bit down without him around. Molly, Mei and him had helped by asking her if she could find out how Lúcio and his family was, despite all of them having his number and everything, but still, her lack of awareness of her own feelings was baffling to them, especially the little mindreader of the group.

He was pulled out of his thoughts, and nearly launched out of the car with Satya, when Hana put on the breaks and skidded into a parking lot, smiling as her passengers bounced back against their seats, Satya mumbling prayers in her native tongue again as she trembled.

Hana looked at her, pleased, before her eyes dimmed when she seemed to remember that Lúcio wasn’t in the passenger’s seat for once. Then looked a bit guilty as she suggested that they all stop inside a café for something to drink before heading out. Make a game plan.

“Sounds good.” He agreed as he got out of his seat and helped his girlfriend get out, making a mental note to buy something with Lúcio’s face on it and some tape so Satya could sit in the back with him where he hopefully could make her feel relatively safer than she had in the front seat.

They walked into a café and Hana ordered and brought their tea to their table while Satya looked at a list of stores that sold men’s clothing and took a look at the types of clothing they sold, her face pulled into a thoughtful pout.

People around them stared, pointed and whispered, Rat gently whispered to Satya, “Uh, is it me, or is everyone ‘ere lookin’ at us?”

She glanced up from her phone and stared at each pair of eyes on them. Hana seemed confused at their expressions as she brought back their tea before realizing that people were staring at them. She looked around the room before looking at their drinks and then at them, “Maybe we should take these to go…” she suggested.

After that awkward encounter, Satya lead the way to the first store, walking through like she owned the joint. Her eyes narrowed as she inspected each and every garment, stopping on occasion to pick up a shirt or pair of pants, holding each on up and glancing it up and down before either neatly refolding it and either putting it away or carefully shifting through the pile to see if there was something that would fit him. Then it was Hana’s turn, Satya would hand her the clothing, she would hold it up to him (often backing up so she could see how it would look better, he is almost two meters high, after all) and either smile and push it into his arms or shake her head and struggle to fold it neatly before his girlfriend would hand her another article of clothing and she’d have to shove it under her arm to keep going.

Eventually Satya stopped, realizing that Hana could only hold so many rejects and they sent him to a dressing room, instructing him to wait until they could sort through everything.

He glanced around and found a sign that said ‘dressing room’ and walked over. Beside the entrance was a desk with several racks, “I’m sorry sir,” the young woman at the desk said, “There’s a limit to how many clothes you can bring in at a time.”

“Ah, ‘roight. Ya moind tellin’ tha’ ta th’ sheila’s ‘m with? They’re koinda leadin’ th’ show ‘ere.” He asked sheepishly, as he wished he could rub the back of his head to make him feel less awkward about saying that and instead tacking on, “Gotta go ta me niece’s thing, they’re helpin’ me out. Don’ normally do this sort of thing, struth. Koinda outta me depth ‘ere…”

The employee gave him an understanding smile, “Ah, well, considering your height, it’s possible that many things here might not fit as well, but there is a new tall and large store my friend started at, it’s on the third floor and they have formal and non formal clothes for bigger men and women, it’s not on the website or the maps around here yet, but they’re between a Swiss candy shop and a bookstore, just follow the smell of chocolates and you’re good.”

“Ta!” He said, pleased with the new information, sounds like he found a new place for not only Hog, but Reinhardt and the ape to come for new clothes… And for Hog to spend a few hours in every once in a while. Because if that wasn’t the best line up for his pal…

The girls came not too long after he gained information and they sorted out a few outfits for him and held them up to him to make sure they would fit before shoving him in with a few garments.

Satya waited just outside just in case he buttoned up the shirt wrong, her foot tapping to the soft music in the dressing room as he started with the pants, dropping his own with the sound of his belt hitting the ground making his girlfriend stop outside for a moment and just as he was about to put the new pair on…

“Jamison!” she called, her voice a bit pitched, like she was panicking.

He opened the door, not really thinking about how he was still sans pants at the moment, “What’s wrong?” he asked, worried.

His girlfriend’s face went from pink to crimson and Hana covered her mouth with impish delight sparking in her eyes as Satya quickly closed the door and hissed at Hana to get something while he tried to comprehend what just happened.

Once he heard her walk away, laughing, Satya entered the dressing room and closed the door behind her, locking it. She was a few breaths away from him until he quickly and carefully took a few paces backwards, making sure to give her space while trying not to trip on the trousers that were lolling about by his ankle… Only for her to take few steps forward, bringing them back to the same distance they were when she came in, her face still red as she did her best not to look at him, which must have been a challenge since he was pretty tall, she was pretty close and there was a mirror behind him. After a few bashful moments, she turned to face the door and whispered, “Why aren’t you wearing any?”

“What?” he asked, completely confused. This whole situation was getting stranger and stranger and he didn’t really understand why.

“_Underpants!_” She hissed, her voice soft and quiet as she turned to face him, her eyes fierce with something he was struggling to identify, “Why aren’t you wearing any?!”

“Don’ wear ‘um. Koinda too hot back home fer ‘um.” He said simply then looked down at her, surprised, “Ya didn’ know most Junker blokes go free snakin’?” he asked.

“No!” she squeaked, “You don’t do that when you’re trying on clothes! You wear undergarments, you try things on, you either buy them or not…” she paused, as if remembering that his clothes, other than the ones McCree had gone out to buy with him, were all stolen, and McCree had returned with him with a few shirts and shorts, nothing more or less, which was fine for here or someplace warm, but Mei had a fit trying to get him warm gear that would cover his lanky form well. (She was still having trouble with Roadie)

“Sorry, luv. I didn’ know.” He said softly, “’N I don’ really have any anyways…”

“… What.” She replied, looking like he just told her that he had three heads.

“I don’ have any.” He said, a bit embarrassed to be having this conversation and only now realizing he was still half naked in a way he wasn’t usually in front of her, “Koinda not somethin’ I needed ‘fore ‘n well, wasn’ gonna get any while shoppin’ with th’ cowboy…” He felt his own face burn as he wondered when he could put his pants back on. Because while he eventually wanted to have sex with her, he’d rather not have his snag and nuts on view in such a public place... And he’d rather he not be the only one sharing. And not have Pipsqueak around for the show either, because he knew she would never let him live this down.

Note to Rat from Rat: get Molls to help get blackmail material.

Note to Rat from Rat: no, she might see it too, Mind Reader, ‘member? Roadie’d kill me if she saw _tha’_.

Note to Rat from Rat: Bribery then?

Note to Rat from Rat: I’ll lock ‘er in a room with Lúcio later, got more important things goin’ on ‘roight now…

“So uh, maybe we can grab some while we’re ‘ere?” He suggested, his voice a bit shrill as he tried not to think about his girlfriend being so close and him being naked from the waist down and tried to think about other things. Like, dunking himself in ice water repeatedly, sitting in an office all day in a boring office job, and other things to keep him from getting too… _excited_.

The last thing he wanted was to make her feel uncomfortable and _that_ in a public place like this would probably do that…

Satya sighed and cradled her head in her hands for a moment before her head snapped back up, her cheeks still red, “We’ll see if they have some. I’ll make some tape measure to get your waist measurements so we can make sure we get the right size…”

“Are you sure that’s all what you want to measure?” Hana giggled from outside.

His girlfriend ran out of the door, a flustered mess, and nearly tackled her as she dashed away at the last moment, laughing. He quickly closed the door and changed back into his own pants and sat down on the nearest seat, struggling between being embarrassed and wondering why he was embarrassed when he didn’t really have anything to be embarrassed about, down there at least.

Luckily no one else seemed to hear or see anything that just happened, the fact that they were the only ones in the dressing room and that the door opened out so people on the outside couldn’t see unless they looked around it and into the mirror at the end of the hall probably helped with that. But, despite that, he stayed in the dressing room until his girlfriend returned and she had him undo the button on his pants and pull them down a bit to help measure his waist, both of them blushing furiously during the whole thing, she then looked up what size he would be and studdered out the size to Hana, who then teased, “You sure that can hold _everything_?”

Satya glared at her with a burning red face and a pout as she scampered off, snickering as she left the changing area. He nearly echoed her question, but instead, said simply, “Uh, so, we gonna ask ‘um ta hold this stuff ‘n I’ll get some fer meself somewhere else, or…?” He asked as he pulled his pants back up.

“They have packaged pairs here, Hana’s buying some for you now.” She told him before they just stood and brewed in their awkward silence.

“…So, how much will I hafta bribe Pipsqueak ta never speak of this evah again?” He finally asked, wanting the uncomfortable silence to get stuffed.

“I’m afraid I don’t know.” She said sympathetically, “But seeing as I might need to bribe her as well…”

“You?” He asked, surprised, “Sorry luv, I don’ see you doin’ anything tha’ would need a bribe. ‘N even if ya did, who is she gonna tell ta get you in trouble?”

“It’s not to keep me out of trouble as much as to keep the teasing down.” She explained, her cheeks pink.

“Even though I was th’ one with ‘is pants down?” He asked, smiling softly at her, “Think yer foine, Sat. But I wouldn’ moind th’ help ta keep ‘er mouth shut. All I got is lockin’ ‘er in a room with Lúcio ‘n stickin’ a picture of his gob in th’ passenger seat.”

“Hmm… the picture of Lúcio could be possible leverage later if we played our cards right.” She said thoughtfully, “But perhaps we should simply keep an eye out for anything she seems interested in. If worse comes to worse, we could simply use snacks.”

Snacks. Chocolate. That candy shop the lady at the desk mentioned earlier…

“Th’ sheila at th’ desk out there mentioned a place sellin’ fancy Swiss chocolates by a new store tha’ sells clothes fer blokes who’re tall ‘n large on th’ third floor. Maybe we should head there next, we can tell ‘er we’re goin’ in ta check it out, scope it out fer Roadie.” He offered. She arched an eyebrow in interest as she motioned for him to further explain his plan.

“We all know Roadie’s tryin’ ta be a good Dadhog ‘n pretty much all of us are rootin’ fer ‘im ‘n Merc, so, a Swiss candy shop, a shop tha’ sells clothes fer th’ tall ‘n large, ‘n a bookstore next ta th’ clothing shop.” He listed, very pleased with himself, “Nice little set up fer either a date or a nice day of Daddy-Daughter bondin’, don’ ya think?”

She smiled broadly, her eyes twinkling with warmth, “I think that will work, perhaps we can convince her to stay quiet in exchange for having her pick out clothes for Roadhog with Molly or just some clothes for him in general, since it would be difficult for him to enter here without a shirt.”

“Sounds good ta me!” He chuckled.

Hana came back with a bag and a smirk, and, after taking the bag from her and while trying on some clothes, Satya relayed the information about the chocolate store as bait for her, Hana’s interest peaking as she quickly looked it up on the map of the center.

“Oh! I’ve heard about this place! Their chocolate is supposed to be the best!” she squealed, “I didn’t know they had a store here! We are _so_ going! We can pick some up for Molly to give her Mom! Ohh! And for Angie, she loves their chocolates!” she said excitedly.

“And Junkrat mentioned we can use this to Roadhog’s advantage.” Satya purred, “He said it was next door to a tall and large store and that was next door to a bookstore.”

Rat could practically hear Pipsqueak’s mind reeling with possiblities.

Then he actually heard knocking on the door, he opened it, shirtless but with pants on this time. She smiled broadly at him, her expression impish and eager, “I know what you’re doing and I’m taking it. No warning Roadhog!”

“Deal.” He said, shaking her hand before she hopped off, telling them that she’d meet them there, she needed to call Mercy and Molly.

The time in that shop went by quickly for Rat, which was good because, while the sheila at the desk was nice and all and helped them with that info about the shops on the third floor, being back here alone with his girlfriend made him keep thinking about what happened and he was struggling trying not to get a stiffy. Thankfully, Satya began asking him about what he thinks that Cheshire might want to do with Molly after a meal, since they obviously would want to do more than that. thinking about the two violet eyed sheilas definitely helped with his… _problem_.

He pondered this for a while, before finally answering that, “Cheshire’s koinda hard ta read, struth, I only met ‘er a few toimes ‘fore we were banished, but she seemed friendly after Roadie explained tha’ I hoired ‘im. She told me ‘bout some old action movies she loved when she was an ankle boiter ‘erself, but they prob’ly won’ let Bob inta a theater, will they?” He asked as he came out of the changing room in the new clothes.

“I highly doubt it.” She told him, frowning a bit as she motioned for him to come further out of the room and began circling him, her eyes narrowed again.

“Too short?” He asked, indicating the shirt, she nodded and he quickly pulled it off and walked back in before turning his thoughts back to Cheshire, “Mentioned how she used to play video games a lot, so maybe the arcade in town?”

“I’ll check with Hana when we meet up again.” Satya said as he walked out with another shirt on, buttoning it until she gently moved his hands away and began undoing what he’d already done, “Mismatched ‘um again?” He asked.

She let out a hum in confirmation before saying, “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were doing it like this on purpose so I’d fix it for you.”

He smiled, “Who knows?”

She looked at him, a sly smile curved into her plump lips as she began rebuttoning them correctly, “Well, either way, I’d prefer making sure you are presentable.”

“Then maybe I should just let you button me up at th’ start, tha’ way, no matter if ‘m doin’ it on purpose or not, ya can be sure ‘m apples.” He suggested.

“What happens if I’m out on a mission or have other plans?” she joked.

“I’d foind a way ta get ta ya.” He promised, holding up a finger over his chest and making an ‘X’ over one side. “Cross me heart.”

“You’re heart is on the other side, that is your lung.” She told him, a smile on her face.

“Then I cross me lung ‘_N_ me heart.” He said, making an ‘X’ on the other side too.

“Or you could ask Hana or Molly to help you.” She chuckled.

“Yeah, but I loike how you do it best.” He pouted as she finished with the last button and began carefully smoothing the cloth against his chest, “’N they can only help me with th’ bottom buttons.”

She laughed again and took a step back, inspecting it before letting out a happy hum and telling him that, “I like this one, it’s got a good length and the color is nice on you.”

“Ta!” He said with a smile, pleased that they had found something in the store other than underwear for him. After that it was fine, he bought a few shirts and a pair of shorts and made their way up the steps. They found Pipsqueak on the third floor by the candy shop, talking on her phone, smiling broadly as she said, “Annyeong!” and hung up.

“Who were you on the phone with?” Satya asked her.

“Molly, she said she’d call me back in a little bit though.” She said, before indicating the tall and large store, “Shall we?”

They both nodded and followed her in, "By the way, Rat, I asked, they _do_ have suits here."

"I ain' wearin' a suit fer Cheshire." He growled before pointing to Satya, "Her, defo. Cheshire? Nah." 

"You can at least let her have some eye candy." Hana teased before snickering, "Oh wait..."

"I will weld a picture of Lúcio to yer car if you say ‘nother word." he threatened.

"Okay, okay! Jeez, what's with you Junkers threatening me with Lúcio today?" she asked, holding her hands up in surrender.

"Molly threatened you about Lúcio?" Satya asked with a smile, Hana's face turning pink as she realized what she'd just done by revealing this information, "_Interesting_."

"Yeah, what koinda shoite have you two been up to?" He teased.

"N-nothing!" She blurted, embarrassed as she quickly dashed to the nearest rack and began frantically searching through it, as if trying to find a place to hide.

Junkrat leaned down towards his girlfriend, "Whaddya say, luv, five minutes of hell 'fore we back off or...?"

"Now where is the fun in that?" She purred before following her to the rack.

'Bloody hell I love that sheila.' he thought as he hopped after them.


	55. Daddy daughter toime

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hog enjoys some one on one time with his little sheila and wonders what level of affection he can show Molly.  
Also Reaper has a bunny.

Roadhog had been lifting weights with Reinhardt spotting him (Angela had recruited Zarya to make sure Pharah, who had just taken her sling off earlier that day, didn’t strain herself, and now the Russian was watching her like a hawk), when Molly ran up to him, Bob on her heels as she held up her phone, calling out, “Da’! Reinhardt! Da’! Reinhardt!” She skidded to a stop with her pup when they saw him holding up weights that were about as heavy as he was. (He was so glad Zarya had taught her proper gym manners and safety) Reinhardt helped him put the weight back down on the rack and get back up so he could properly see what she was so excited about.

He grabbed his gym towel and his water bottle to take a quick drink and wipe his forehead off under his mask before he motioned for her to tell him.

She beamed, her violet eyes sparkling as she began bouncing on her toes and told him that, “Hana said tha’ Rat heard from a noice sheila at tha’ lesire…” she stopped and pouted thoughtfully, her cowlicks in the shape of question marks, “Lesuite? No…”

“The Leisure Center?” Reinhardt offered.

“Yeah! Tha’ place! They heard tha’ got a new place tha’ has clothes fer bigger blokes loike you guys ‘n Winston! She says yer all goin’ on Saturday with ‘er ta get new clothes whether ya loike it or not!” She announced cheerfully, her cowlicks back to their normal heart shape.

“’N if any of us say no?” He asked.

Molly gave him a blank look before politely excusing herself and walking out of the room, poking at her phone’s screen as she turned the corner.

“Hana it’s me, Da’ wants ta know what’ll happen if any of ‘um say no.” He heard her say, there was a pause before she ran back into the room and held up the phone to him, “She told me ta give ya th’ phone!”

He carefully took the tiny phone in his massive hands, “Yeah?” He said.

“Roadhog, the stores next to this one are one of Angela’s favorite candy stores and a bookstore. I am giving you the materials to help your romance bloom, Rat said I could and I’m taking it.” Hana said firmly.

“Rat?” He repeated.

“He and Satya gave me the gossip for a favor.” She said, “Let’s just put it like that.”

“So they bribed ya by usin’ me.” He said flatly.

“Well, would you prefer me helping or Rat helping?” She asked.

“…” He sighed, as much as he appreciated it when Rat tried to help him in the romance department, he just got a girlfriend recently, and they couldn’t go out on things like dates or anything… So a part of him both wanted him to focus on his own relationship for his own sake and for him to mind his own fucking business instead of being a nosy bastard. And while Pipsqueak was being nosy too, she had a better understanding of Angela’s likes and dislikes than Rat since she had gotten plenty of information on her while he had been injured and sulking.

“What toime?” He said.

“After you all eat lunch, Molly has a surprise for you all and you wouldn’t want to miss it!” She told him.

He looked at his daughter, who was patiently waiting for her phone back by rubbing Bob’s ears and cooing about how he was the ‘best doggy evah!’

“A surprise, huh?” He said, watching out of the corner of the lens of his mask as his little girl jumped at the word ‘surprise’ and quickly ran back over and shouted, “No spoilers!” at her phone with a frustrated pout on her face as she pointed at it like one would if their dog made a mess on the carpet (not that she’d ever had to do that with Bob, he’d been as good as gold in that regard if one didn’t count the ‘pissy suit’ incident), “You promised, Hana!”

“How mad is she right now?” Hana asked him, laughter in her voice.

“She looks really hurt, don’ think you should tell me nuthin’.” He said plainly as his daughter began trying to climb up his pant leg whining, “HANNNAAAAA!!!!”

“Okay, give her the phone, I need to do damage control.” She laughed. He handed his daughter back her phone, smiling broadly as she scowled at her phone, “If you gave spoilers, ‘m tellin’ Lúcio ‘bout th’ thing ya said not ta tell ‘im ‘bout!” she threatened.

He then heard frantic cries from the other end, his daughter’s eyes and cowlicks leaning upwards towards him, silently asking for the truth.

He shook his head, smiling, “She was good.” He assured her. Molly pouted at him, her eyes narrowed before she said, “Da’ said you was good, so I won’, but if you tell anyone!!” she warned.

He heard more frantic cries from her phone before she blushed a bit, turned away from him a bit and said, “Okay, but you have ta get some fer Da’ too…” she perked back up, “Okay! Can we play tha’ spy game again when ya get back?” There was a brief pause and he watched as her chest puffed up and a confident smile curled up her cheeks, her cowlicks back to their usual heart shape. “’Cause I think I know how ta beat ya in one verses one!” Another pause and Molly pouted again and stomped her foot, her free hand curled into a fist by her hip, “Yeah I can! I worked really hard on it! ‘Soides ‘m a Junker, I can steal anythin’, ask Rat!”

Her eyes narrowed as she listened to Pipsqueak on the other end of the line, “Yer _on_.” She said, determined before a normal happy grin popped back up onto her face, “Hooroo Hana, see ya when ya get back!” she said cheerfully before hanging up and looking up at him, “Da’, when yer done, can ya look over me plan?” she asked.

“Rat did most of th’ plannin’ fer our heists, but if ya don’ moind waitin’ ‘til ‘m done spottin’ Reinhardt, I’ll help where I can.”

She beamed and latched onto his leg, “Thank you Daddy!” she squealed.

Daw, that would never stop being cute.

He patted her head and spotted the giant German while Molly left with Bob and returned a little while later with her arms filled with rolled up papers, making both men decide to stop their work out early to ask why the hell she had so much for one game.

“When yer playin’ one against one, ya both get a map of th’ area ‘n a few blue prints ‘n ya have ta plan it out ‘fore hand ‘fore ya go in. Normally ya play against a stranger who either plays as th’ spy tryin’ ta do their job or be an enemy agent who works to make sure you don’ succeed. We’ve done it ‘fore ‘n we made up rules ta keep it fair for th’ next toime we’d play.” Molly explained.

“Like what?” Reinhardt asked, Zarya and Pharah coming over as well, most likely curious about the papers in her hands as well.

“Well, rule numbah one is we have to play th’ stage a few toimes ‘fore we try a one on one, so we both know where everything is. Tha’ way no one loses at th’ start ‘cause they don’ know where ta go or what ta do.” She said, holding up a finger.

“Second rule is we can’ look at th’ other’s plans ‘n we have ta play in different rooms, so there’s no cheatin’. Hana’s gonna be playin’ defense so she’s gonna use ‘er laptop ‘n a few extra screens ta keep me from working, she’ll be able ta call various guards ta wherever at th’ start ‘n lock certain doors ‘n close up shops at the start ‘n move cameras ta catch me ‘n stuff while chasin’ me in game. She’ll be in th’ conference room. I’m gonna be using ‘er game player thin’ ‘n me papers ‘n work ta succeed in me mission in ‘er room. Both of us are gonna be filmed ta make sure we ain’ cheatin’ so we loive stream it ‘n we agreed tha’ Athena should film us ‘n show tha’ we’re playin’ fair.” She held up a second finger up with the first one.

“That seems a bit complicated just to make it fair.” Zarya commented, a bit concerned.

“It’s so no one watchin’ can say one of us went easy on th’ other or cheated.” Molly explained further, “th’ first toime we tried this without all our rules, I got really far, but I lost. Couple people watchin’ accused me of cheatin’ jus’ cause ‘m a Junker, so me ‘n Hana came up with rules so no one could say tha’ no more. This is th’ first toime we’ll be doin’ it since then ‘n I’ve been workin’ really hard ta prove I can win without cheatin’.”

“Really? ‘Cause I’ve heard you two playin’ tha’ game ‘n been hearin’ Hana tell ya ‘better luck next toime’.” Hog recalled.

“Oh, we’ve had contests to see who can get which objective done without gettin’ caught or messin’ up th’ fastest since then. I’ve been gettin’ caught, but I cover me tracks each toime.” She then pouted, “‘N if they didn’ want me gettin’ caught, then they shouldn’ give me an explosive rubber duck! It’s cute ‘n it blows up, who wouldn’ use it?!” She cried, making Hog chuckle as the others tried to comprehend the words she had just said and make sense of them. (All that time with Rat helped in that regard for him.) Reinhardt was the first to snap out of his confusion and urged her to finish telling them the rules the girls had in place.

“Third rule is bathroom breaks are automatic toime outs.” She held up three fingers now, “If we have ta sneeze, we have to warn th’ other person ‘n if we need a sec to clean up, tha’s an automatic toime out too. Same with coughin’.”

“Good thinking.” Pharah chuckled.

“Fourth rule is tha’ th’ spy can only use stuff in th’ level ‘n th’ enemy informant has ta let you be able ta at least get some items in th’ level ta try ta win ‘n not jus’ be a jerk ‘n make it impossible ‘n laugh ‘bout it. ‘Cause tha’s annoyin’ ‘n it takes th’ fun out of it.”

“Did tha’ happen when you two played before?” Hog asked.

“Yeah, we played one verses one ‘gainst some random bloke, Hana was playin’ I was helpin’. ‘E kept laughin’ at us every toime ‘e made it impossible ta get somethin’. Luckily me ‘n Hana brought th’ explosive duck inta th’ match ‘n there was a little loift fer food tha’ we could use, so we still won, but it was frustratin’.” She confirmed, “Tha’s why we came up with tha’ rule.”

“Is there a rule number five?” Pharah asked her.

“Koinda, I have ta keep me bracelet on, but tha’s more for us ta know then anyone else...” Molly told them, holding up her wrist to show them that she was wearing it before she began rocking back and forth on her toes, “I dunno if she’ll wanna do a one verses one with me still when she gets back, we’d hafta set a bunch of stuff up ‘n she could be tired, but if she does, you guys wanna watch? Athena could prob’ly put it on th’ big tellie in th’ common room...”

“I can do that.” Athena confirmed.

She looked up at them, her cowlicks wavy with anxiety and her eyes were silently pleading as she fiddled with her bracelet some more. Bob licked at her leg as if trying to assure her that of course they’d want to watch.

“Of course we will watch, Mäuschen,” Reinhardt confirmed as he gently ruffled her hair, her cowlicks going back to their usual heart shape as soon as his fingers left her blonde locks.

“It’s gettin’ close ta lunch toime, how’s a noice cuppa ‘n some biscuits sound as we go over yer plans?” Hog asked her as he lifted her up, Bob at his feet. Her stomach growled at the suggestion and she nodded cheerfully.

“Try to have some sandwiches too!” Zarya insisted, “She will be hungry if she only has a few cookies, they are not filling or healthy enough for a growing child!”

“That reminds me, I have been looking at a new recipe for pelmeni and I was wondering if I could ask your opinion...” Reinhardt said, most likely covering for them as they left. Zarya immediately took the bait and the two began discussing food as Pharah gave them a knowing smile and a small wave as they left.

He carried her into the kitchen and placed her and her plans on an island before he began busying himself with the kettle. He could hear her spreading the papers out on the island and Bob’s nails clicking against the ground as he happily ran around it, as if he was trying to find his way up to sit with his little human.

He pulled down a few tea bags and mugs and placed them by the kettle, he gathered the cookie jar and poured a few sugar cookies onto a plate that he placed by his daughter’s side, being careful to keep an ear out for the kettle as she began pointing to places and telling him all about her objectives, pointing to where she’d have to go to do them. She stopped when the kettle sang and he brought back two mugs of tea and, after she thanked him and took the smaller mug from him and put it next to her. She then began going over her plan in detail, moving cookies around on the page and moving her hands as she spoke, Hog quietly making sandwiches for them and looking at her plans on occasion to get a better idea of what she was talking about at times while a few others came in for a few minutes to make quick lunches for themselves as well before slipping out.

“’N then I use a stun gun on th’ security camera main frame ‘n _then_…” She rambled excitedly as he handed her a completed sandwich. She then took a big bite and continued to talk, getting crumbs all over her plans.

He chuckled as he finished making his own sandwich and chowed down as she continued to talk with her mouth full at the same time. For a moment, he saw Cheshire telling him all about the Mad Max movies and the TV show (she then made him watch it, they were great and all, but now it was just too much of a reminder of Junkertown, so they were now kinda ruined for him), some of her favorites, excitedly waving her arms and even drawing out maps and moving whatever was around (usually one of his little pig figurines) and showing him where people went and describing the cars and bikes they had and where the explosions happened and getting crumbs all over his table as she munched on crackers and cheese he’d had in in his kitchen way back when they were in the ALF. He saw Rat for a moment too, eagerly revealing their next big score and cackling at all the money they’d have for the taking and all the mayhem they’d be making as Molly eagerly exclaimed how she would ‘get th’ goods, blow some stuff up ‘n get out!’ with a little bit of cheese covering one of her teeth in the same spot where Rat’s gold tooth was.

He didn’t know if he was okay with that or not, but he was a little sad that he didn’t see any piece of himself in Molly as she stopped and pouted at him.

“Da’, are you listenin’?” She asked, sounding a bit hurt that he wasn’t paying attention.

“’Course luv.” He fibbed as glanced down at Bob for help, the pup simply giving him a flat look, as if to say, ‘No you weren’.’ She narrowed her eyes, “Then how did I say I’d kill the bad guy?”

“Explosion.” He guessed.

“By?” She asked, crossing her arms, her hurt melting into anger.

“….” He sighed, lying would do him no good. All she had to do was take off the bracelet and she’d know he hadn’t listened to a part of it. He rubbed the back of his head, “Sorry, luv, ya jus’ remoinded me of yer mum while you were explainin’ everythin’…”

This information seemed to take her by surprise, “I did?” She asked, curious.

“Yeah, it was loike sittin’ next ta ‘er back in th’ day.” He told her, smiling softly, “You have no idea how much yer loike ‘er.”

She picked up her cooling tea and grabbed a cookie before she scooted closer to him with her feet, “Tell me then.”

He blinked, then chuckled as he sat down at a stool by the island (one that could hold his weight) and grabbed Bob off the floor and placed him on his usual leg and then placed his daughter on her usual leg, “Comfy?” He asked.

“Yup!” She said, Bob confirming the same with a bark and his wagging tail. He chuckled as he told them about all the little things Molly did that reminded him of her mother, then told her silly stories about her Mum that made her giggle.

“Daddy?”

“Hmm?”

“Next toime Mummy comes ta visit, can you come too?” She asked.

He leaned back his head and contemplated that question for a moment.

If he was being honest, he highly doubted it. This stupid PETRAS act thing was taking forever to cark it, despite everyone’s efforts and the ape’s excitement for the Irish and South Korean Governments now being all for it being abolished as well. (At least, the Irish UN rep was all for it and they kind of guilted/offered up a bribe to the South Korean Government into being against it as well.)

He probably couldn’t go out in public with Cheshire without someone recognizing them (he seriously regretted being in that fucking photo for that article about the good the ALF was doing all those years ago, luckily he wore a mask now, but people would still probably know who he was with it on), and while it was possible the coppers here may not see anything wrong with it, all it would take was one person calling someone who had an axe to grind against him or Cheshire and he and Rat might have to go back on the run and Overwatch may be forced to shut down again. And he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to take Molly and Bob with them if they did manage to get away, as the Australian government or Child Services or even Vishkar might try to nab them for themselves if Hyde or Talon don’t snatch them up first. And it would be very likely that they’d toss Bob into the streets the moment they got their hands on her. Not to mention Rat would probably never get to see Symmetra again and he doubted either of them would take that well…

“It will depend on th’ next toime yer Mum comes ta town, she’s workin’ really hard ta help make th’ world a safe place ‘n help foind yer siblings. Next toime she’s ‘round, I moight be on a mission or may need ta recover from an injury, but I’ll try my best ta be there at th’ next meetin’ as long as it’s safe ta do it.” He said instead, not wanting to make his daughter panic while not really lying at the same time.

“I’ll ask ‘er when she’s gonna visit next!” She promised cheerfully.

“She moight not know then, let ‘er know she can call me, you or Rat ta let us know when she can come, but if it’s a last minute thin’, she hasta call me, okay?” He instructed.

“Okay!” she beamed before he suggested that they clean up and he carefully began gathering the dirty dishes while Molly brushed crumbs off of herself and her plans and rolled them back up, Bob happily snapping at the crumbs as they fell to the ground.

Hog watched the action with concern, because if they had eating cookies with chocolate in them and sandwiches with food he couldn’t eat and he ate crumbs from those, Bob could get sick or worse. ‘Maybe I should try trainin’ ‘im not ta eat crumbs ‘n food off th’ floor…’ he thought before watching his daughter notice her puppy’s actions and began waving a page of her plans to watch him try to eat the falling crumbs, laughing as she did so.

…Maybe he’d focus on teaching Molly about foods that are dangerous to dogs first… even if it was cute watching them do that.

He carefully tossed away the used tea bags and put everything away, Molly finishing her task before he did so she sat on the edge of the counter top, swinging her legs as she waited for him, her arms filled with rolled papers. Bob continued to finish cleaning up the last of the crumbs off of the floor as he heard someone else enter the kitchen.

“Hi Winston, hi Hammond!” Molly called. Hog turned to see the ape smiling at them and greeting his little girl back before placing Hammond on the counter beside Molly and began perusing the pantry.

Hammond peered down at Bob and squeaked a bit, pointing at him with an impish smile on his little face, as if making fun of him. Bob stopped licking the ground and barked at him as if challenging him to come say whatever he had to his face.

“Hammond.” Winston said sternly, not stopping his search for whatever he was looking for in there as he told him that, “Bob is just doing what dogs do, you don’t see him making fun of you for making a nest out of toilet paper.”

Bob let out a snort at that, Hammond squeaked at the ape in the pantry and then at the dog, Molly taking off her bracelet, most likely to stay in the loop as the two continued to make noises at one another.

As they went back and forth, Molly’s cowlicks and turning head telling him who was speaking and when.

“They havin’ a blue?” He asked.

“Yeah.” She sighed, “They do tha’ a lot.”

Winston came out of the pantry, some bananas, a jar of peanut butter and a few pecans in his hands as he stood behind Molly and shook his head, “At least it’s not as bad as when Symmetra and Lúcio they first learned that they’d both be working together.”

“Really?” Hog asked. He and Rat came here after Lúcio and Symmetra did, and while they hadn’t been all that nice to one another when they arrived, they’d mostly just exchange passive aggressive jabs at each other and have a few snippy arguments that the rest of them would quickly snuff out by either telling them off or separating them not too long after they’d start as far as he’d seen and heard.

They were much better now, but that was because they had learned what not to say around one another to start a fight and because Molly would get upset if they started arguing in front of her and neither of them wanted to deal with the guilt that would come from that. Or how mad he’d get if they’d make his little girl upset, but it was mostly the guilt that kept them them from fighting as far has he could tell. Symmetra now dating Rat had also eased more tensions between them since he could easily either change the topic or separate them or tease Lúcio about how things were going with Pipsqueak to distract them.

“The first time they both realized they both joined and would have to work together, they got into a huge argument and it nearly came to blows. We had to separate them for a few days and I had to have long talks with both of them.” Winston informed him.

“Tha’ sounds annoyin’.” Molly said plainly.

“It was, but at least they calmed down after those talks enough that we didn’t have daily fights.” The Silverbacked Scientist confirmed, “At the rate these two are going, they are quickly making their constant arguments far more annoying then Lúcio and Symmetra’s spats.”

It was silent for a moment before Hog decided to break the ice again, “So, what were ya two up ta?”

“Oh, we were working on a blueprint so we, Torbjörn, Brigitte, Junkrat and Symmetra can start to repair Wrecking Ball.” Winston informed them, “The damage Molly did was severe, but most of Wrecking Ball’s systems are still intact, so with everyone’s help we should have Wrecking Ball up and running within a few weeks.”

Hammond seemed to pull his attention away from Bob enough to glare at Molly, only for him to suddenly look confused and point to the papers in her arms.

“These?” Molly said, holding up the papers a little higher. Hammond nodded, Bob barking at him before Molly seemed to further elaborate, “Me ‘n Hana play a really tough game ‘n this is my plan fer victory!”

Hammond gave her a funny look and squeaked something at her.

“It’s not all tha’ complicated.” Molly replied, “I jus’ needed lots of maps. It’s a big area ‘n I get lost sometoimes.”

“Molly, may I see some of those maps?” Winston asked. She nodded and handed them over, he sat down on a nearby stool, placed the snacks on the island and cradled the papers in one arm, unrolled one with other hand and rubbed at his chin with his foot, “What is the objective in this building?” he asked, pointing to the plan on the page.

“Oh! In tha’ building ya hafta press a special code ya steal from this one bloke inta th’ elevator ta go down ta a secret lab ‘n destroy a disease tha’ targets people genieally…” She paused, “No, tha’s not th’ roight word, I said it roight ‘fore...”

“Genetically?” Hog offered.

“Yeah, tha’ one!” she said cheerfully before her expression became serious, “If th’ bad people release it where their target is, they could use it ta kill them ‘n even a few others if they ain’ careful ‘bout where they release it!”

Winston looked at the paper, looking concerned for a moment before looking at Molly, “Molly, we have a mission coming up not too long after your mother’s visit, would you like to help me with it?”

“You… you want my help?” She asked softly, her eyes sparkling in awe of the request from the current leader of Overwatch.

“Of course! You seem to have a knack for strategy if your birthday party and these papers are anything to go by, and it will be good for you to see how missions are planned if you become an agent.” He said, “We can go over the plans for the next mission the day after your mother’s visit.”

She opened her mouth, a huge smile on her face and her cowlicks curled tight up on her head before she stopped, her eyes narrowed and her cowlicks became pointed, the ends of the strands pointing at the floor, “_If_ I become an agent?” she challenged, insulted.

“_If_.” He said with a nod, “Back when we were a UN funded organization, we had many different departments. We weren’t all supposed to go into the field to fight like we do now, everyone was committed to one thing, maybe two, full time. Some of us would do research or create things to help with missions, some of us would do recon or gather data, we had many doctors that were experts in various types of medicine and surgery, and there were others who would handle things like clean up and cooking.” He explained, “We all do what we can now because it’s just us. We don’t have the kinds of funds or resources that we used to.”

“He wants you to know you have options.” Hog summed up when they both realized that his words weren’t making her frown lessen on her face, “Ya don’ loike hurtin’ people… or bots. When yer an agent, ya have ta foight, ‘n sometoimes, people… ‘n bots, get hurt.”

“But I wanna help-“ she began.

“There are lotsa ways ta help.” He told her, “Ya don’ hafta foight ta help.”

“But I _can_ foight!” she insisted, “Everyone says ‘m doin’ really good with me lessons ‘n I wanna help foight! I wanna foight ‘n protect people who can’! I wanna be an agent! I wanna be a hero ta someone loike you all are heroes ta me!” She pouted and looked at the floor, her face pulled into a tearful, but determined pout, her cowlicks a bit wavy, but still stubbornly pointing to the floor, “I wanna be a hero ta someone who didn’ know they needed one too…”

Hog felt as if he’d been struck in the heart at her words, his throat growing thick with emotion as he smiled and tears blurred his vision. He gently ruffled his daughter’s hair, the locks soft against his fingers, “You will.” He promised, “We all jus’ want ya ta keep yer options open. ‘Soides, who knows, maybe you’ll be a better spy than a foighter.” He joked as he lifted his hand.

“I can do two things.” She said firmly, her face still pulled into a pout as she seemed to mull something over in her head, “Or three…” Her cowlicks started to straighten out and rise from it’s stubborn stance, “Or four…” she then looked up at both man and ape with a big grin on her face, “Or FIVE!” she cried, her cowlicks curling up to their normal heart shape on her head, “I’ll be th’ best agent ‘n help with everythin’!” she declared before looking Winston right in the eye as he quickly straightened in his seat, trying to pretend like he hadn’t used his other foot to wipe at his eye, as she gave him a salute, “You can count on me, Winston, we’ll make th’ best plan _evah_!”

Winston chuckled and handed her back her papers, “I look forward to it.” he said before he held out his hand to Hammond, who hopped on and they left the kitchen with their snacks.

“So, what do ya wanna do while we wait fer Rat ‘n th’ others ta get back?” Hog asked her.

“Hmm…” She pondered, Bob letting out a whine and walking around in a frantic circle all of a sudden, “Bob hasta go ta, maybe after we let ‘im out, we can play some of th’ games Reinhardt gave me fer me birthday?” She offered.

He smiled and lifted her up, making her squeal with delight.

“Sounds loike fun.” He told her before he placed her on his shoulder and scooped up Bob to head outside.

After Bob went to the bathroom, they dropped off Molly’s plans and picked up one of the games she’d gotten for her birthday and began setting it up on the common room floor. Reinhardt, 76 and Ana coming out and spotting them playing the game while passing through. Molly cheerfully invited them to join them, but Morrison politely excused himself, saying that he had to talk to Winston about an upcoming mission.

“Oh, you can tell me ‘bout it too, ‘cause ‘e said ‘e wanted me ta help with tha’.” She said, her chest puffed up in pride, “’E said ‘m a good strategister- stategist…” she wilted a little as she struggled to recall how to say it right.

“Strategist.” The adults corrected in unison.

“Yeah, tha’!” she said cheerfully.

Morrison looked at the little girl, realized that she was not going to give in until he played too and asked Athena to have Winston come out to play too, so he wouldn’t have to repeat himself later.

Winston and Hammond both joined them and everyone but Hammond and Bob began to play. Hog could guess how ridiculous they all looked right now; two big arsed blokes who had a hard time using things made for normal sized people, an old soldier, a one eyed sniper, a gorilla, a hamster, and a little girl with her puppy sitting around this tiny board game.

But at the same time, they were all having a good time, even though the soldier tried to keep it strictly business as he rolled the dice, “So, that new mission in Cairo…”

“Tha’s in Egypt!” Molly exclaimed as the dice stopped on a six and he moved his piece six squares.

“Yes it is! Good job, Molly!” Reinhardt roared as he gently ruffled her hair. Molly puffed up with pride, obviously pleased with herself.

“Anyway, that weapons dealer we met in Cairo, do you really think they have any relation to Hyde selling Molly’s siblings?” He asked as he picked up a card and put it down in front of him.

“Hyde kept track of the offers they got from various criminal and terrorist organizations for Molly on her stick,” the ape explained, “and the one you met was offering a very high price for her and no doubt if any of her other siblings were on sale, they’d be someone Hyde would reach out to as a possible buyer.”

“Is this dealer person a bad guy?” Molly asked.

“Yes and no.” Morrison said, “Weapon dealers sell weapons to bad people, but they also sold weapons to Ana and I when we needed them.”

“… So he’s both?” Molly asked, her cowlicks shaped like question marks.

“’E don’ have a soide, Molly.” Hog explained, “’E’ll sell ta whoever’s buyin’.”

“But what if somethin’ ‘e sells ta someone hurts someone who had nothin’ ta do with whatever they bought th’ weapon for?” She asked.

“Nothing.” Morrison said, “The people get hurt, sometimes the bad guys get caught, sometimes they don’t. But the dealer never has to pay for the sins of their customers.”

“But tha’s-!” Molly began, not pleased by this answer.

“Molly.” Ana said softly as she put her hand on her head, “Remember what I told you yesterday during your lesson? Weapons themselves are not good or bad, how they are used is up to the people that wield them.”

She pouted and let her head fall a bit past her shoulders, “But ‘e knows who ‘e’s sellin’ ‘um to… why would ‘e let tha’ happen?”

“As long as this dealer doesn’t get involved in anything dangerous, she doesn’t care who she sells what to.” Ana said, “It’s just part of her job.”

Molly pouted, “I wanna talk with ‘er!” she declared.

“No!” The Overwatch elders said in unison.

“Now hold on here.” Winston said, “It’s possible that Molly’s presence could help us.” He looked to Ana, “You know this dealer pretty well, how does she feel about human trafficking or children?”

“She’s never said and it’s not as if many people bring their children to buy weapons, so it’s hard to say…” Ana said.

“So there is still a chance that if we explain what Hyde is really selling, we can get her on our side.” Winston said.

“I’ll do it!” Molly said firmly, “I wanna save me brothers ‘n sisters ‘n if this sheila can help, then I wanna do it!”

“That’s still quite dangerous…” Reinhardt told her, but her cowlicks became pointed and pointed towards the ground in their stubborn stance. She wasn’t budging here.

“Roadhog.” Ana said, knowing just as well as everyone else here that Molly would not give up until she got to help or until he said something to convince her otherwise, “Are you okay with Molly going to see this weapons’ dealer?”

“I’d rather ‘er stay ‘ere ‘n bring a copy of ‘er files, struth, but seein’ ‘er moight help ‘er believe us. Wanna make sure she’s medically okay ta go first…”

“Whaddya mean by tha’?” Molly asked, “Angie said ‘m aces ‘n I’ve been good ‘bout tellin’ ‘er when I get nosebleeds ‘n stuff.”

“He means that we have to make sure you have all your shots to travel to Egypt. As far as we know, you’ve only been to Canada and here, and Angela wouldn’t have given you a shot for anything you can get anywhere else but those places. If you are going to go to Cairo, you will need to get a check up to see how healthy you are right now and make sure you have all your shots to go.” Ana explained, “Plus, if you really want to be an agent, you need to go through the same thing every agent goes through before going out into the field and a medical check and a round of shots is a big part of it.”

Molly rubbed at her arms nervously. She didn’t seem to fear shots, but she didn’t seem to like them, either. It was understandable, all things considered, but Roadhog silently hoped that she might cave at the mention of a shot.

But she didn’t.

“If ‘m ‘roight ‘n get all those shots, can I go?” she asked, looking up at them with a pleading expression.

The other adults looked to him as if to say, ‘we tried, now you need to make the call’. He sighed and scratched at his head, “Only if me, Rat ‘n Bob are with ya ‘n you stay close. No wanderin’ off. No tellin’ what koinda things this sheila’s sellin’ ‘n who she’s selling it to.” He said sternly.

“No idea what she’s sellin’ ‘n ta who…” Molly muttered, thoughtful as she rubbed her chin, before her eyes lit up with inspiration and her cowlicks curled into a lightbulb shape, “That’s it! Ana ‘n Morrison can say you ‘n Rat need somethin’ really hard fer us Junkers ta get! Loike… loike…” she blurted, searching her mind for something they’d need that they couldn’t get.

“Like government grade explosives!” Winston cried, excited now, “That’s perfect! Even if she’s caught wind that Roadhog and Junkrat are with Overwatch, we can’t get access to it and no one would ever question why Junkrat of all people would want government grade explosives and why he’d need to find a weapons dealer to get his hands on some! That’ll be our way in!”

“Yeah!” Molly agreed, bouncing on her bum before the ape scooped her up and placed her on his lap, “I knew having you help would be a good idea!” he said proudly.

Molly’s glee was practically radiating from her as she said, “See! I told you I’d make th’ best agent evah!”

“You certainly did!” He agreed, Hammond and Bob exchanging a look, somewhat confused, before seeming to shrug before Hammond climbed up one of Bob’s raggedy ears to sit on his head and the two of them were soon fast asleep.

By the time the game was over and Winston won, Athena announced that Rat and the girls were back and that, after eating the pizzas they bought for dinner, Hana wanted Molly’s help to prep for the live stream.

She seemed to perk up at the mention of food as she asked, “What’s pizza?”

“It’s a flat bread with a sauce, usually a tomato sauce of some sort, cheese and various toppings on it.” Reinhardt explained before saying, “I think we had it not too long after you came here…”

“She was in th’ medibay, she wasn’ eatin’ anything outsoide Angela ‘n Zarya’s meal plan at th’ toime.” Roadhog reminded him.

“Angela?” Ana repeated, her eyes bright with interest.

“Pizza sounds yummy!” Molly said, probably covering for him as she began cleaning up the game.

“You think everything sounds tasty.” Reinhardt pointed out, laughing loudly as he held out the box for her to put things away, Hammond and Bob waking from their nap with starts before Hammond climbed back down and the two separated.

“It_ is_! Everythin’ tastes tasty ‘ere! ” She replied with a big smile as she slowly and carefully placed each piece and card away in their proper places in the box, stopping each time she went to put something away to make sure she was putting it in the right place.

“I am glad to hear it!” The old knight declared with a loud roar of laughter as he plopped the box down and scooped her up into the air, making her squeal with delight as he gently bounced her on his palms while Ana and Morrison finished cleaning up for her. Roadhog felt something pat at his leg and looked down to see Bob’s paw on his leg as he looked up at him as if to say, ‘Oi, if we’re eatin’, I need ta go out fer a piss first.’

“Molly,” He called, Reinhardt catching her and turning his hands so she could see him better as he pointed to Bob.

“Oh, roight! You haven’ gone in a while, have ya, Bob?” She asked before politely asking Reinhardt to put her down, giving him a hug and then hopping over to them with a huge smile on her face, “Let’s go!” she said excitedly as she rose her arm, as if she was about to go on some grand adventure instead of taking her dog outside to go to the bathroom.

Once they had taken Bob outside and done his business, Hog let them back in and asked, “You ready for pizza?”

Molly beamed,“Yeah!” she exclaimed before singing, “Pizza! Pizza! ‘M ready fer pizza! Pizza!” down the hall with Bob happily running and barking behind her skipping form, Hog chuckling as he lagged behind.

She certainly did enjoy the pizza after he had her wash her hands, she struggled at first when the cheese just kept stretching as she tried to move it away so she could properly eat the bite she had taken, “I’ll ‘eat yu, peeza, jus’ yu wait!” she declared through her mouthful.

After struggling for over a minute trying to stop the cheese from stretching into infinity, covering herself with a string of cheese (and having a few of the adults at the table cheering her on), Hog got a knife and carefully cut the string of cheese that seemed to never end.

After that, he removed the string from her person and she was happily chowing down on pizza without any problems, but she kept looking to him expectantly every time she was about to take a bite, silently asking him to hold the knife just in case the cheese chose to elongate into oblivion again.

It didn’t, but he kept the knife in his hand the whole time she ate, just in case that cheese got any ideas…

He slowly ate his own pizza, as moving his mask up and down to eat was a bit of a hassle, but he managed, his massive hands were easily able to hold a quarter of a whole pie to munch on while he listened as Pipsqueak chattered on about how so many people were staring at them when they got tea and how the big and large store they’d found had plenty of clothes in his, Reinhardt’s and Winston’s sizes and how they were _so_ going clothing shopping with her on Saturday after they ate lunch. Winston tried to back out of it by claiming that he had mission prep to do, only for Molly to remind him that they had the basic plan down and that it would be good for all three of them to have clothes they could blend in with for this and future missions.

Not that two blokes who were over two meters tall and a giant, talking gorilla with glasses could blend in easily, even with clothes to help them with that, but none of them said a word. Molly had never lived in any other kind of family like setting and she had no idea how unusual it was to know one person their size, let alone live with two and their furry boss. Bob barked in what Hog could only guess was agreement before Molly reminded him that, “’n ‘m helpin’ plan th’ mission too! We can work on it after breakie ‘n then I’ll go ta meditation at eleven with Genji!”

The ape quickly caved and insisted that they stick to more self defense and weapons training after lunch tomorrow before returning to his dinner with a sigh of defeat.

Hana then began to talk about all the prep they’d need to do after they ate and all the help they’d need from Athena, before Zarya interrupted with a comment about how Hanzo needed to eat more. Genji quickly began holding up a slice to him, saying, “Say ‘Ahhh’ Aniki!”

That led to a ninja chase around the mess hall, the group laughing at the brothers’ goofy antics while Molly watched with rapt attention as Hanzo finally gave in and took a bite from the slice his brother held out to him, most of the cheese and toppings scattered on the tables and the floor due to their chase. Bob happily wandered around the room and began cleaning up the bits on the floor for them, Hammond seeming to nearly comment on this before Winston silenced the hamster with a firm, “Don’t.”

He had been busy enjoying Genji’s little victory lap around the room, chuckling as Hanzo plopped down at their table while munching on the slice his brother had been chasing him with, his expression somewhat annoyed, but his eyes soft with amusement.

“Da’!” Molly called, he turned to her seat, only to see her booster seat empty and her walking on the table and holding up a slice that she seemed to barely be able to hold with her teeny hands, “Say ‘Ahhhh!’” she instructed as she held the slice as high as she could without dropping it on herself.

Even if Roadhog couldn’t see the amused faces from around the room out of the corners of his goggles, he could _feel_ their eyes on him, most likely crinkled in amusement, as his daughter looked up at him with her eyes sparkling like large, violet gems.

He was never going to live this down, but he honestly couldn’t seem to give a single fuck about it as he moved his mask up a bit on his face, leaned down, opened wide and said, “Ahhhh.”

Molly stood on her tiptoes to place the tip of the pizza into his mouth.

Yeah, no, he wasn’t feeling good about this, she needed help or it would either land on his chest or on the floor for Bob to enjoy and she’d get upset that she’d mess up.

So he stuck his tongue out so she could put more of the slice on there, Molly giggling as she managed to put more of the pizza on it before he pulled the whole thing back into his mouth and lowered his mask again, catching several amused expressions around the room as he finally managed to taste the slice his little sheila had put in his mouth.

And oh how dearly he wished he had paid more attention to the kind of pizza she had just put into his mouth before he opened it.

Who put pineapple and anchovies on the same pizza? Who put either ingredient on pizza in general? Granted, over the years, he’d had worse and it wasn’t all that bad, but still, who thought either thing would be good on pizza? And why did Pipsqueak order it? Who ordered it enough to ever make those toppings a thing? WHO ATE THIS WILLINGLY?!

Oh, right.

He did. It was for his daughter’s happiness, but still, he ate it willingly.

“Is it yummy, Daddy?” She asked him, her eyes sparkling with hopes and dreams and her hands curled by her chest and her cowlick curls tight on her head. He couldn’t lie and tell her that it was tasty, but he couldn’t tell her the truth and say that it wasn’t his favorite either, he thought about his response while finished chewing and swallowed. Finally, he simply said, “Not bad.” Before gently ruffling her hair and tacking on a “Thank you, Molly.” She gleefully bounced on her toes as she made a happy sound that made his heart warm at her reaction.

It was certainly making him feel better than the giggling that seemed to fill the room and the phones he could see pointed in their direction.

Symmetra saved him from another slice of mystery pizza by reminding Molly that it was bad manners to stand on the table and dinner quickly wrapped up after that.

Hana and Molly immediately washing up and running out of the mess hall to begin their preparation, Hana’s bags in her hands and Bob right behind them as they went while the rest of them finished cleaning up the mess hall. Which was becoming a normal thing around here since Molly started eating with everyone else.

After the mess hall was good, they all made popcorn, grabbed cookies and other movie snacks and grabbing multiple six packs of booze and soda and heading to the common room to set up the snacks. Junkrat had headed to his room with his new clothes to put them away with Symmetra following behind him to ‘make sure they didn’t get wrinkled and he put them away properly’.

No one really bought her words to be the only reason they left for his room together, but hey, half his luck.

He felt his phone vibrate in his pocket and pulled it out, it was a text message from Cheshire;

‘I cannot tell if I am more jealous that I wasn’t there to see that in person or that Molly wasn’t feeding me pizza too.’

It took him less than ten seconds to guess that Rat had filmed what happened and sent it to either Sombra or Cheshire or both. But he instead replied with, ‘Since when have you liked anchovies and/or pineapple on pizza?’

He got a laughing face for that comment before she typed, ‘Rat’s right, you are a good Dadhog! Although, me ‘n Sombra still like calling you the ‘Hogfather’ better!’

He paused at that, considering his newest nickname with a thoughtful smile. He liked it, it had sort of an old timey gangster movie feel to it that still implied that he was dangerous but still had a sort of formal feel to it…

‘I’m fine with either one.’ He finally sent back before telling her that, ‘Molly and Pipsqueak are going head to head tonight, live streaming it, so you’ll be watching everything at the same time we’ll be.’

He didn’t get another text from her for over five minutes before his phone dinged again, ‘Sombra’s setting up while I get tucker and tinnies, let me know when the live stream starts.’

He sent her a thumbs up emoji before tucking his phone back into his pocket.

“Who was that?” McCree asked, pointing to his phone.

“Cheshire. Told ‘er ‘bout th’ loivestream.”

“Oh! I should inform Efi as well, I am sure she will want to watch too!” Orisa said from behind the couch where she and Bastion were sitting. Zen was with Genji and Hanzo on the other side of the room. All of them sitting a nice distance away from him, which he appreciated.

“I should give Ingrid a ring as well, wouldn’t want her to miss this!” Torb said as he began poking at his own phone.

“Perhaps you should give Molly’s new friends’ family a call, let them know.” Mei suggested.

“Not sure if they’d wanna watch, ‘soides, it’s a school noight for those kids.” He pointed out.

“Molly is their friend, of course they’d want to watch and they’ll probably be happy for the excuse to stay up later.” Mei insisted, her arms crossed and her face pulled into a stubborn pout that he’d seen enough on many of the females here (mostly his daughter) to know she wasn’t going to let up until he did it.

“… Foine, but ‘m sayin’ tha’ ‘m tellin’ ‘um ‘cause Molly wanted ‘er friends ta watch ‘er win. If I just tell ‘um ‘bout it, they moight think tha’ ‘m tellin’ ‘um ta watch, not askin’. Don’ wanna be _tha’_ parent.” He told her. Mei and McCree nodded in agreement and he sent the other new number in his phone a message.

Mrs. Flynn apologized that they most likely couldn’t watch the stream because they had no idea how long the match would be and that they wanted their kids to be able to wake up on time for school. She did say they’d watch it tomorrow when they got home and he made sure they knew he understood and even offered to plan a get together for the kids to play up here soon to make up for them missing her win against Pipsqueak before shoving his phone back in his pocket.

His phone dinged again, it was Cheshire again, ‘Reap and Mister Fister took me last slab ta drink while they watch football!! Fucking lazy booze stealin’ bastards!! And Widow’s possessive as fuck over her millions of bottles of wine she keeps in the cabinets (WE HAVE NO ROOM FOR PLATES AND SHIT SO WE ALWAYS HAVE TO USE PAPER AND PLASTIC ONES) Tinny for me, I had a secret goon hidden in the kitchen, so we’ll be cheering for Molly in style!’

‘How’d ya manage that if Widow’s so possessive of wine?’ He asked her.

‘She thinks that all boxed wine is plonk, so she doesn’t touch it. Drongo. Like I’d EVER buy plonk. I know my fucking booze, just because it’s in a box or a can don’t mean it ain’t good!!!’ she ranted.

‘More for you and Sombra.’ He pointed out.

‘Cheers!’ and a smiley face and two glasses clinking popped up on his screen in reply before he put his phone back into his pocket.

“Cheshire again?” McCree asked.

“Yeah, ‘parently Reaper ‘n Doomfist stole all ‘er beer.”

“Bastards!” McCree spat.

“She’s with ya on tha’.” Hog said.

“So, if ya don’ mind me askin’, what was she jawin’ with ya about ‘fore ya told her about the live stream?” McCree asked, Mei scooting up on her butt towards them to hear them better.

“Rat sent ‘er a video of Molly feedin’ me pizza, wanted ta tease me.” He said simply.

“Don’ be too sure ‘bout Rat bein’ the only one who could’ve done it, partner.” McCree said as he pulled out his own phone, “He wasn’ the only one filmin’.”

“I filmed it too.” Mei said, holding up her phone.

“Rat has Sombra’s number.” He pointed out, “You two don’.”

“’N if ‘m rememberin’ right, you ‘n Angie have Cheshire’s.” He reminded him, Mei’s eyes widening at this new information.

Hog considered that for a moment as he glanced at Angela across the room, chatting with Pharah and Orisa before noticing him and giving him a warm smile and a wave that he bashfully returned before grunting in defeat and grabbing a stubby and popping the cap off with a fingernail before taking a sip. He noticed Rat and Symmetra finally returned from the dorms with soft smiles as some of the others greeted them, grab the they sat down on a small couch nearby and got about making themselves comfy, Symmetra’s hair a bit messy and Rat looking giddier than he had when he left.

“Either way, what’s the big deal? You, Junkrat and Mercy all said that Cheshire’s no risk to Molly.” Mei reminded him as she grabbed a soda and a handful of popcorn. McCree already had a tinny in his hand and had used the tab to open the can as he tosseda few pieces of popcorn into his gob.

“Ches ain’, but ‘m still worried ‘bout what’ll happen if th’ others in Talon’ll watch too, last thing we need is them watchin’ us.” He pointed out before moving his mask up and taking a swig.

“Unfortunately, Talon already knows the location of this base, they’ve known since before I issued the recall.” Winston admitted sheepishly, “That attack at the Pet Shop was only the second attack they’ve made here against us.”

“WHAT?” Morrison roared.

Winston held up his hands in mock surrender while explaining that, “Reaper broke in and nearly stole every past Overwatch agent’s information from Athena. I managed to get rid of him, but still, it was after that incident that I decided to start Overwatch again.”

“Why didn’t you tell us this before?” Morrison snapped.

Winston straightened up a bit and pushed his glasses further up his face before motioning to Ana with one hand and Angela with another, “Why didn’t you or Ana tell me that Reaper was Gabriel Reyes?” He asked, “Because, to answer your question, I had been wanting to restart Overwatch for years. It was only after Reaper broke in that I decided that, if only one Talon agent broke in to steal from Overwatch, then not only are they confident of their strength, but that it would only be a matter of time before they would reveal themselves to the world again! And Darwin knows what they’d be able to do without us being anywhere near as prepared and staffed as we were a decade ago!”

Everyone else in the room stiffened before they seemed to glance at each of the accused, their mouths agape when they noticed that the two had become pale, but Hog noticed that so had Angela. Angela was shaking and covered her face with her hands as she began to curl in on herself, Pharah and the bot quickly trying to see what was wrong, Pharah rubbing her back and glancing back and forth between Morrison and her mother. Orisa seemed especially confused and concerned as she didn’t understand why she’d start crying after that announcement, as she probably didn’t know who Gabriel Reyes was and wondered why the two elder members would keep a dangerous Talon member’s true identity a secret from the rest of them and why that would make her cry.

But Hog had a good idea who this bloke was and why 76 and Ana had kept their mouths shut;

Because it was hard to point fingers at a friend. Especially when he was supposed to be dead. It was probably hard enough for them to accept that they’d been betrayed, let alone that the bloke was still alive. Reinhardt and Angela had been sobbing hysterically when they’d found them both, alive, while on a mission in Cairo earlier that year…

McCree had mentioned Gabriel Reyes when he told him about how he lost his arm and he had told him a little more about him over an hour at the shooting range two days ago.

He had been McCree’s boss, got him out of Deadlock and into Blackwatch, which was Overwatch’s black ops division, sent out on missions that they and the UN couldn’t technically sanction but that still needed to be done.

He’d apparently been a good mentor, a father figure to McCree and often was on grumpy (back then) Genji’s back about needing to lighten up. He had been good to him and Genji, the witch too, he’d guess, not that she stuck around for very long after Blackwatch was revealed to the world. His death had hit McCree hard, really hard, Ana’s had too, she taught him how to really shoot after he joined and had been a second mother to him (still was, struth). It was made worse when Overwatch was disbanded not too long after, the little family he had left here at Overwatch going their separate ways, leaving him alone.

“Mother?” Pharah finally called, snapping him out of his thoughts as he looked at the two accused.

Ana and Morrison sat and stood tall, their faces grave and the two looking a bit older for a moment before Ana finally opened her mouth to speak, “When did Molly find out?” she asked, her voice a bit tired.

“The petshop incident, she saw memories of him with most of the people here being happy before seeing something with an explosion. When you interviewed her about what happened after that, Jack, that’s when she found out that you two knew about him being Reaper. After you interviewed her the day after, she came running into my office and told me everything before going to make lunch with Angela.”

“Did Molly see how Reaper turned into what he is now?” Pharah asked, Angela wincing at her question.

Hog narrowed his eyes, her starting to cry at the news that her old friend was alive and one of their greatest enemies was somewhat understandable, but _wincing _when someone asked something that anyone would… his massive gut was telling him that Angela probably knew about Reaper being Gabriel Reyes. As to why she kept her mouth shut, he had no idea, but his gut told him that she already knew that her old friend betrayed them.

The silverbacked scientist shook his head, “No, she said that she didn’t see how he got his ability to turn into smoke from him.”

Molly said that she _didn’t_ see how this Reyes bloke became what he is _from him_. Hog looked at Angela as Pharah and Orisa comforted her, the good doctor seeming to be just as wary of Winston’s wording as he was.

Molly knew what happened, but she didn’t tell Winston even though her knowledge could help them take out a wannabe ghost shooter who fancied himself a bringer of death.

No, his little sheila wanted to be a hero, to protect those who couldn’t protect themselves.

Even if it was just from their own guilty conscious.

He made a mental note to buy Molly an extra special present when they went to Cairo. Maybe even take her to see some sights if he could, he’d have to keep Rat under control after all. But now that he thought about it probably wouldn’t be hard if he could convince Rat to not mess with the explosives if they actually got to get them. Maybe he could convince him to take pictures of the buildings he thought Symmetra would like and maybe another little present too if they saw something she’d like.

“If anyone made him like that, it was probably Moira.” McCree growled, making all eyes turn to him as he started crushing his beer can with his metal hand, a little of the frothy goodness spilling out of the top and trickling down his mechanical fingers and dripping a bit on the carpet.

“Jesse and I found them together so many times with her sticking needles in him and having him hooked up to a bunch of machines.” Genji confirmed, sounding pretty angry as he explained that, “He always said she was treating him for some genetic condition he had, but Jesse and I never really fully believed it. She just looked too happy about whatever she was helping him with for it to be something that simple. She probably did something to him that made him-“

“No.” The old soldier said firmly, “Him becoming Reaper was something that started a long time ago, before he even met you.” He sighed and threaded his fingers through his silver hair, as he told her that, “He and I were on a short list to join when the UN started Overwatch and he was originally the one supposed to lead it. But then I got the command instead. He did a great job with Blackwatch, but we all knew he wanted to be the one in the spotlight like I was, not hiding in the shadows. Even if he didn’t have these ghost like abilities, he’d still probably be on Talon’s side now wanting to prove how much better he was than I was for the job...”

“He was always was a bit of a show off.” Torb confirmed with a snort, hurt in his eyes.

“We all were like that once.” Reinhardt countered, looking old and tired again as he reminded his old friend that, “I too was once overconfident and loved showing off, sometimes you need someone to remind you that you are not bullet proof and that showing off can cost someone their life if you are not careful... And while I am somewhat glad to hear he is alive too, I am not happy with his current path in life.”

“Would it make ya happier if ya knew he has a websoite ‘bout ‘is pet bunny where ‘e dresses it up ‘n shite?” Rat offered.

The room went immediately silent as this new information sank in.

“Yer jokin’!” Lena accused, a smile curling up her cheeks.

“Fair dinkum, I couldn’ make this up!” He laughed, “I mean, for fuck’s sake, th’ site’s called ‘My Beloved Abyss’!”

“It is rather amusing.” Symmetra confirmed, a wry smile on her face, “Hana nearly hurt herself looking through it due to laughing too hard while Jamison was trying on clothes.”

Genji immediately ran over to him, holding up his phone, “Link please.” Rat pulled out his phone and oblidged, making the younger Ninja brother’s phone vibrate. The cyborg quickly began tapping on his phone and his face lit up with impish delight,“Ara ma-a!! Hanzo, Hanzo! You_ have _to see this, this was worse than that website Aunt Mari had for her cats!”

Hanzo practically flung himself across the room and looked over his brother’s shoulders, his jaw dropped before he pulled it back up into look of pure disbelief, “Is-Is this video him feeding his rabbit treats shaped like us?” he asked, completely stunned at what he was seeing and struggling to find out if he was horrified by this fact or if he found it hilarious as Reaper’s voice blared from the speakers, “This is my revenge! TASTE MY VENGENCE!! AHAHAHAHA!!”

“Cheshire ‘parently suggested ‘im makin’ somethin’ ta get ‘is moind off ‘is angst aftah bein’ toired of listenin’ to him wailin’ ta death metal songs ‘bout ‘im bein’ cursed or some shite all th’ toime.” Rat informed them as he put his arm around his girlfriend.

“Sombra also said that she offered to redo his website last week, but he turned her down, saying that it was his ‘artistic representation of his never ending suffering’.” Symmetra informed them, her golden eyes glittering with amusement as she leaned against him.

“This looks like a middle schooler’s fan page for a death metal band!” Genji blurted, tears trickling down his face as he handed his phone over to his brother so he could hold his stomach to laugh properly. Pharah motioned Hanzo over, indicating Angela with a hand. He nodded and held it up to her.

Angela took it with shaking hands, her blue eyes widening and her expression going from guilty to giddy and giggling, “‘Abyss; the only one who understands my tortured soul?’ That’s your tag line?” she asked as she wiped at her face, as she carefully scrolled through and started giggling.

“Angela, can you forward that to everyone else’s phone for us please?” Winston blurted before quickly clearing his throat, “It could have important information on Talon somewhere in the posts.”

“Nice save.” Pharah snickered as Angela moved her finger around the screen and sending it to everyone’s phones with dings and buzzing notifying everyone’s phones of the new little gem they could taunt an enemy with.

“Agent Song told me to give you a one minute warning.” Athena announced as the TV turned on, revealing a countdown on the screen underneath the words: ‘Ultimate Showdown;Rematch edition! Student verses Master!’

Hog picked up his phone and warned Cheshire that she had less than a minute before it was due to start.

‘You couldn’t have given me more of a warning?’ she texted back.

‘Pipsqueak likes keeping us on our toes.’ He replied before leaning back in his spot and watching the timer hit zero.

“Hiya everyone! Welcome to the Rematch of our Ultimate Showdown! I’m D.Va!” Hana said, giving the audience a wink.

“’N ‘m Molly! ‘N this is Bob!” Molly said cheerfully. Bob barked as if he was confirming this fact.

“And today we’re playing…” Pipsqueak went over the game and the rules and who would be doing what before she announced that, “We’ve also decided that we’re going to make it interesting by having a little punishment game at the end.”

“Loser hasta kiss whoever th’ winner says!” Molly informed them, “You can all guess who I’ll pick fer Hana ta kiss if she loses!”

Lúcio’s name popped up repeatedly on the bottom of the screen from the commenters only for Molly to say, “No, ‘e’s not ‘ere, so I had ta pick someone else.”

The screen’s bottom was then flickering with comments like ‘NOOOO!!’ and ‘BUT MY SHIP!’ and ‘But… but my ship…’ and similar ones.

“WHAT’S WITH YOU ALL ‘N BOATS!?! I JUS’-I DON’ GET IT!!” Molly blurted, a bit frustrated as her cowlicks twirled into little springs on the top of her head.

“Anyway… I think who I picked is easy to guess too.” Hana said with a smile, the comments on the bottom now guessing “Daddy kisses for Molly!” Molly’s angry pout melted away as her cowlicks became wavey and her eyes went wide, she suddenly looked conflicted, her cheeks flushed, “I-I wanna win, but…” she mumbled, fiddling with her fingers.

Hog’s phone dinged, another message from Cheshire, ‘Tell Molly that if she wins, she’ll get lots of Mummy kisses.’

‘On it.’ he replied before sending a message to Molly and Hana, making both of their phones ding.

“Hang on, I just got a message from Molly’s Dad.” Hana announced as she pulled up her phone.

“Me too!” She then smiled and waved at the screen, “Hi Da’!”

Hog felt warmth flow through his chest and tingle through his body as he waved back at the screen, not that she could see him, but it just felt right to do it. He caught Ana and Torb giving him smiles through his periferals, which was fine, they were parents, they got it. He spotted Rat smiling at him too, but this smile was more of a pleased one than a teasing one, not that he would’ve given a fuck even if it was.

If his daughter was waving to him, he’d fucking wave back, no matter if she could see it or not.

“Apparently her Mom contacted him and they both agreed that if she won, they’d both give her lots of kisses.” Hana informed the world.

“Da’, does tha’ mean Mummy is watchin’ too?” she asked through the screen before waving at the screen, her smile even wider and her cowlicks were curled tightly into their usual heart shape, “Hi Mummy!” He smiled and typed out a message that made both girls’ eyes sparkle with joy, “OMG, Molly, your parents love you so much, this is so sweet just OMG!” Hana cried, before clearing her throat, “Okay, so her Dad told us that ‘Of course your Mum would be watching, you are her precious baby and she will never get enough of watching you grow up.’” Hana sniffled, “Aw man, after this, I might want to call my parents, if it’s not too late…”

“Can me and Bob say hi too?” Molly asked.

“Sure! You can show them how you’ve been doing in your Korean lessons!” she said before wiping her face a bit.

“Ne!” Molly replied cheerfully.

“That means ‘yeah’ for those that don’t know.” Hana translated before saying, “Alright, now to get on with the game!”

The game had been an exciting one, with everyone cheering for both sides and laughing. The dual screen showing the world what each one was up to, sneaking around and trying to get things done and getting in one another’s way. All the while Molly and Hana were swapping quips and blurting out silly battle cries, one of Molly’s most memorable one being, “DUCK ATTACK!” when she flung a rubber duck into a room with the virus in it before running out, closing the door behind her, slid against a nearby wall and the sound of an explosion roared behind it before the door fell onto the ground beside her character, the words ‘Objective Completed’ on her screen. Rat let out a laugh, “Good on ya, Molls!” he cheered along with some of the others, a good portion of the group now completely sloshed. Rat surprisingly was not, but he guessed it was because he was too busy enjoying being all snuggled up by his girlfriend and that he’d rather enjoy their little party sober.

Roadhog glanced at Angela, who was much more relaxed and happy now, a bit of tension out of her shoulders. Although if it was because everyone finally knew what she did about Reaper or that Pipsqueak and Molly’s match was very entertaining, he really didn’t know.

He was just glad she seemed to be feeling better.

“Daw, I know someone who will be proud of you for that!” Hana sang.

“Nah, he’ll be more proud of me for the other thing.” Molly told her.

“What other thing?” Hana asked.

“Remember tha’ weird hole thingy in tha’ fancy house I hid in?” she said, her words vague as she struggled to recall the right word, “It had wood in it and th’ hole went up to th’ top of th’ house?”

“You mean the fireplace?” Hana guessed.

“Yeah, tha’!” she confirmed, pleased that Hana had understood what she had meant. “Remember tha’ toime you showed me how if ya leave th’ gas on, somethin’ll happen?” Molly asked, a bit of teasing in her voice. Hana paled as she quickly looked to a camera in that room and watched as Molly’s assassination target tried lighting a match to start a fire in the room. Symmetra put her hands over her ears as Rat’s eyes lit up with delight as the target swore under his breath and kept striking the match against the box.

“You little sneak!” Hana cried, half proud, half angry as the match caught and he blew himself up. Words popping up on Molly’s screen saying ‘Target Eliminated.’

“THA’S MY NIECE, SISTAH, WHATEVAH!” Junkrat shouted as he popped off the couch and pointed to the screen. Symmetra put her hands down as he excitedly asked her and Genji, who were sitting closest to him, if they had just seen how well she had handled that and jabbered on about how proud he was of her.

“Oh, ‘n Hana?” Molly called.

“Yeah?” She replied.

“I think yer cameras are busted.” She said as her character placed a stun gun to the black box where all the images for the cameras were and turned it on.

“NO!” she cried, serious this time as she pulled up several more screens for the camera feeds, all of them only displaying static, “Oh, now you’re in trouble!” she told her.

“Only if you can catch me!” Molly laughed as she moved her character out of the room and ran to find a way out of town.

“Careful what you wish for, Molly!” Hana said as her character soon popped out to give chase.

“How did you know-?!”

“That you would go for the motorcycle?” Hana finished with a cackle, “That’s one of your favorite ways of escaping!”

“It’s cool and makes funny noises!” Molly exclaimed in explanation as she began zigzagging around a busy road to make it harder for Hana to grab her.

“I taught you well!” Hana laughed as she cut straight through the crowd, “But you can’t out run me!”

“Don’ hafta!” Molly said, “I jus’ need ta make it harder fer you ta get through!” She smiled as her character tossed a rubber duck onto an empty alleyway of the street they were on and it blew up, capturing everyone’s attention and making it harder for Hana’s character to get through the crowd. Molly’s character reached a motorcycle parked nearby and pressed the button to hop on. Hana’s character somehow managing to get through the crowd and finally reaching her old position just as she seemed to drive off and head into a tunnel, the words ‘Mission Accomplished’ popped up in bold letters on Molly’s screen at the same time as the words ‘Mission Failed’ popped up on Hana’s.

“I WON!” Molly cried as she dropped the controller and hugged Bob, who began covering her in doggie kisses, “I WON, BOB, I WON!”

“I…I lost?” Hana said, in disbelief before she smiled and said, “Well, I guess for our next match I should do a bit more of my homework! Great job, Molly!”

“Atta girl!” McCree whooped before tipping onto the floor, Mei laughing as she pulled at his arm to try to keep him upright before falling down with him, both of them wasted and chuckling. Rat cheered loudly for her as well, Symmetra covering her ears again as he did, but she was smiling just as broadly as he was.

It was a good look for her, Hog was all for her sticking with Rat so that smile became a normal thing to see.

“Daddy, Mummy, did ya see tha’? I won! I won!” Molly cried happily through Bob’s slobbery doggie kisses.

Daw!!!

His phone dinged and he pulled it out, chuckling at the multiple incoming messages from Cheshire that were slightly misspelled due to what he could assume were either tears or being completely plastered, gushing about ‘my babi, Mak, mi baaaabbbbbbyyyyyyyyy111!!1’

It was probably both. He nearly forgot that Cheshire had a tendancy to cry easily when bombed out. An old memory of the night before the Omnium blew popped up in his mind and he quickly flushed and shoved it back down into the pit he threw memories he didn’t want popping back up. It was times like this he was a bit envious of Rat’s shitty memory, it wouldn’t change what had happened to his friend, but at least the things he didn’t want to remember stayed down most of the time.

Everyone who hadn’t passed out cheered for her as they watched various congrats and comments cooing at how cute Molly was at the moment before she smiled her mother’s Cheshire smile at the screen, her cowlicks in their little horn places on her head, “Oh Hana!” she sang puckishly, “It’s kissin’ toime!”

“Bring it Molly!” Hana challenged, “I can handle anything you throw at me!”

“IT’S KISSIN’ TOIIIIMMMMMEEE!!!” Molly cried as she left the room, letting out a loud shout of; “AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!” with Bob right behind her, barking cheerfully with his stubby tail wagging as they left the view of the camera.

Her battle cry making them laugh, especially since she left her headset on and had stopped to catch her breath before going back to shouting again. Hog shook his head, as he pictured her waving her arms, her little hands curled into fists as she dashed down the hallways with Bob right behind her.

The room became still, waiting for Molly to come rushing in and grab someone, only for no one to come into the room and for Hana shift nervously in her seat in the conference room on the screen, questions rising from the comments, asking if she was nervous.

“A little, I mean, no telling what that girl is thinking.” She replied anxiously as Molly’s battle cry continued in the background.

After a minute and another moment for Molly to catch her breath, there was a knock on the door;

“It’s me, open up!” Molly called. Hana got up, the camera zooming out to show her walking to the door, opening it and Molly looking quite pleased with herself with her usual smile as she hopped in on her toes, her cowlicks curled in their usual heart shape.

“Well, where’s the person I have to kiss?” she asked, a bit nervous.

“Who said tha’ you’d be kissin’ a human?” Molly asked as Bob skipped into the room, his tongue out and his tail wagging, “Yer kissin’ Bob!”

Hana let out a sigh of relief before she got down on her knees and kissed Bob’s head and laughed vibrantly as Bob returned the favor, and then some, covering her in slobbery doggie kisses that made her squeal with delight.

After that, Pipsqueak and Molly ended the video, Molly was herded into the shower room, Bob was let out to use the bathroom, they wished everyone a good night and then Hog sat with her and Bob as she read a few chapters of a book and the two of them fell fast asleep. He had tucked them in like always and was about to turn out the light and had his hand on the doorknob to quickly flee once the lights were out when he spotted her cell phone charging nearby.

He paused, remembering the message he had sent to her earlier, promising lots of kisses from him and Cheshire if she won.

He still had not delivered on that promise yet tonight.

Now that he thought about it, he had never given Molly a kiss before.

He often gave her snuggles, hugs, ruffled her hair and carried her around. He briefly wondered if it was strange for him to see Molly as his daughter while never so much as giving her a peck on the forehead, but it wasn’t like he had much to go on about how a dad would do things from his own childhood, as he’d never seen him, met him or even knew his name. His Mum never told him anything about his father, any time he’d ask, she’d always pout and look at him and say, “’M I not a good enough parent for ya, Mako?” That question always hurt, because she knew the answer and he knew the answer, her question didn’t answer his question and her question wasn’t fair and they both knew it.

He’d found pictures of her with old friends and even asked people she’d known for a very long time while in the ALF, so he could at least inform them about her death. But her friends said that she never told them and she had planned to never talk about it. There were speculations and rumors, but his Mum was tight lipped about the whole thing. He was tempted to talk to the blokes mentioned in the rumors, but when he went to see one, he stopped near his house and was about to walk up to it when he saw the bloke talking with a teenage boy and ruffling his hair with his hand with a smile as a sheila chuckled at them from the veranda. He then turned around and didn’t look back and never looked into the other blokes either. He wasn’t going to wedge himself into other people’s lives just for the chance to find someone who probably didn’t want to be a part of his.

So, in a way, he was the exact opposite of his father. He had slipped into being Molly’s Da’ so fast that it was hard to believe it had only been six months or so since he’d found her in that blood stained smock trying to open up a packaged pastry while surrounded by broken glass.

He wasn’t even technically her foster father yet. He’d only recently gotten a response saying that they would continue to allow him to care for Molly on a temporary basis until they could have a proper Child Services agent come to them to make an assessment.

Which made his insides twist in dread at the news that some asshat would be coming here to decided if he kept Molly or not, despite Angela’s constant e-mails and updates and reports on her positive status with him. The only time it was negative was during the fucking suit’s visit when he broke her nose, something she had sent to both Vishkar and Child Services, requesting that someone who was qualified and well known for being good with children be with the fucking suit should he try to recruit one in the future, just in case he hurt another child so bad they needed immediate medical attention. Again.

Still thought they should’ve let him kill that worthless shite…

Oh well, Cheshire could do it in his stead, she had been madder than a cut snake when he and Angela told her that the annoying fucker that strut about the Talon base on occasion had caused her baby harm…

That and Rat couldn’t get in trouble for Cheshire’s actions with Symmetra. The two of them, definitely would get him in trouble if they killed/harmed him (the party was an exception, as Symmetra told him later that she understood why he did it, but she didn’t seem pleased about it). But Cheshire’s actions were her own, and they couldn’t control her or order her around, so whatever she did was out of their hands.

He sighed and turned out the light, even with all the help he was getting from the others and all the guidance from the older members of Overwatch, the fact that he still hadn’t even given his daughter a peck on the cheek or forehead yet was both painful that he couldn’t even give her that and embarrassing because he didn’t really know what he was doing here and confusing because he still had no idea if he’d been her dad long enough for him to give her a kiss and if it was okay.

He’d spend countless hours trying to figure out how to be a parent, via thinking/worrying, reading and getting advice and he somehow managed, but he was constantly feeling as if he wasn’t good enough, like he didn’t deserve Molly’s seemingly endless adoration of him.

He opened the door, silently wondering if Ana would be up for a chat about his internal Daddy kiss dilemma, because he knew Torb and Reinhardt were passed out on the couch, only to freeze the moment he heard, “Da’?”

He turned to see Molly lifting her head up a bit as she rubbed at her eyes with a tired pout on her face. He quickly stood a little straighter in her doorway to block more of the blinding light so she would adjust to the dim room easier and once she did, she asked, in a drowsy voice, “’M I gonna get me Daddy kisses tomorrow?”

His eyes widened in shock. How did she know-

Oh, right. Mind reader.

No, wait, she slept with her bracelet on, so that just meant that she had probably been thinking about his promise since she’d won... and probably since he made it, now that he was thinking about it…

Molly’s wide eyes were focused on him, silently pleading for affection she had rightfully earned, despite the fact that she really shouldn’t have had to earn it at all. But it wasn’t all that long ago that Molly had called him ‘Daddy’…

He closed his eyes.

No. No more overthinking about this. It didn’t matter that he had no idea what he was doing here, because if he was being honest, no parent really did and even if they did, different methods worked with different children. So it didn’t matter that they weren’t blood and it didn’t matter that he _still_ didn’t legally have guardianship of her in the eyes of Child Services. All those things could get stuffed because to him and to her, she was his daughter and he was her Daddy. He could and would kill an army to keep her safe and even die for her if he had to. If he could do that, he could give her a kiss, no problem.

Besides, he _loathed_ the idea of being the Dad that could never be held to his word.

He walked back into her room, and gently placed his hand on her head, ruffling the still damp locks between his fingers, “It’s too late ta give ya _all_ th’ ones I promised, but…” He pulled his mask up and gave her a kiss on the forehead, “Tha’ one should hold ya over ‘til tomorrow.” He chuckled as he pulled his mask back down.

Even in the dim light that came in through the hallway, he could see her cheeks turn pink, her cowlicks curl tighter in their heart shape and a smile curl up her cheeks as she put a hand on the spot he’d smooched. Then she grabbed whatever bit of him she could (his hand) and hugged it tight, “I love you, Daddy.” She murmured softly.

He felt as if he was about to melt as he gently pulled her into a hug and rumbled a soft, “I love you too, Molly.”

The sound of a low whine made them both look at Bob, whose tail was flat against the bed as he pouted up at them.

“We love you too, Bob, now get over ‘ere.” He said with a sigh. The pooch immediately perked up and hopped over to be pulled into the hug and looked up at Hog expectantly.

“You already got a kiss from Pipsqueak ‘n Molly gives you kisses all th’ toime.” He argued.

Bob barked and pouted at him. Molly looked up at him too, her eyes pleading, “Pleeeeaaassee Daddy? Plllleeeeeeaaaaassssseeeee?”

While normally Roadhog could handle two against one fights with ease, parenting two against ones were not his forte.

Where was Rat when he needed him? At least then he’d have a distraction.

Fuck it, he’d ask Torb and Ana how to resist adorable pleading from his daughter tomorrow while she was with the ape. (Cause everyone knew Reinhardt was too much of a softie on that front.)

“Fine.” Hog finally sighed, “Come ‘ere, ya greedy mutt.” Bob happily bounced into his palm and Hog lifted the bottom of the bottom of his mask up and pecked the pup on the head, “Happy?” He asked as he shoved his mask back down and put Bob back onto the bed, smiling at the silliness of the situation despite himself.

Bob let out a happy bark, his tail was wagging like crazy as he settled back down by his doggy pillow.

“Tha’s a ‘yes’.” Molly translated with a giggle before he gave her one last hug and tucked them both back in for the night.

“Sweet dreams you two.” He said softly before he finally walked out of the room and closed the door... only to find the more sober of the group and the bots who couldn’t drink nothing at all, waiting out in the hall hovering by the door, smiling and giggling (as the ones who were just flat out wasted were passed out in the other room).

He looked from one smiling face to the other before rolling his eyes and walking towards his room muttering, “Ya’d think they’d never seen a bloke give ‘is little sheila a kiss good noight ‘fore.”


	56. Sombra chapter: Amistad

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sombra and Cheshire arrive on the island. Sombra recalls a recent Talon failure and she and Cheshire have some personal chats over food.

Sombra leaned forward against the railing of her hotel room balcony, watching as the sun setting into it’s own reflection in the water as she swirled the wine in her glass.

She and Cheshire had checked in an hour ago, with Cheshire carrying their luggage up to their room herself, not that either of them had that much, just some clothes, bathroom essentials, Cheshire’s claws, some of Sombra’s tech, guns, Cheshire’s daughter’s birthday present, you know, just normal things one would bring on a trip.

Especially when your boss tells you that your only friend is going to be where you are going while on vacation and he gives the orders to kill that friend on sight…

Cheshire stepped out onto the balcony with a beer in her hand and let out a whistle at the setting sun, “Noice view.” She commented.

“My ass is pretty nice, isn’t it?” Sombra replied coolly as she turned to see her bodyguard roll her eyes as she turned her back to the water, her violet eyes scanning the building they exited before glancing left and right, checking the other balconies on their floor to make sure they were devoid of people.

“How are ya feelin’?” She asked for the third time since Doomfist’s call, her eyes still scanning the balconies of the nearby rooms, her very wavy blonde hair blowing slightly in the wind as she checked to make sure they were truly alone. Sombra smiled, hiring her as a bodyguard was a good move on her part. Not only was she hyper aware of danger and skilled with offense and defense, but just having her standing behind her giving someone her broad, unsettling Cheshire cat smile was enough to make anyone she planned to blackmail too terrified to try anything until it was too late.

She was a few inches shorter that Sombra, but it hardly made her any less intimidating. Even unarmed in a tank top, shorts and flip flops (or thongs as Cheshire always insisted when they were alone. Because Moira heard her say that once and got all excited before they revealed the simple shoes to her and Cheshire punched her in the face afterwards for ‘bein’ a fuckin’ perv!’), and she radiated an aura of ‘fuck with me ‘n it’ll be th’ last thing you evah do’… or maybe that was just the radiation and her resting bitch face, it was honestly hard to say.

Meh, it was probably both.

That being said when she wasn’t looking out for her or fighting to keep her safe, the woman was friendly and caring and a _huge _worrywart when the two were alone. When in front of the others, she would calmly check her for any injuries and for any lingering threats after they were done, but as soon as they were out of sight, the woman comforted her, brought her whatever she needed to make her feel better, made her laugh and joked around and, when wounded, she fretted over her like…well…

‘Como si fuera me madre…’ she thought with a small smile.

It made sense. She _was_ a Mom. One who was well known for defending children from danger back in Australia and she had been so blinded by her desire for family that she ignored warning signs back when she volunteered to work with Hyde for a chance to be a mother. Not to mention that she watched Hana ‘Diva’ Song’s social media like a hawk for anything that had to do with her daughter.

Not that Sombra didn’t either, she never really spent more than a few seconds with the kid in person and most of it was spent shouting and swearing at Moira for her acts of cruelty against children and how fucked up it was that she was perfectly fine with kidnapping some little kid to use as a weapon, but from what she and Cheshire would watch to unwind after a long day or to enjoy on long flights, Molly was a sweet and smart, albeit somewhat gullible, child who never had problems speaking her mind.

They’d laugh for hours listening to Molly’s commentary while Hana played various games, sometimes Reaper would join in to watch with him with his rabbit, Abyss, and she’d caught Doomfist watching a few of the Bioshock animations fans had done of them. She was considering checking to see if they’d uploaded another video when she felt someone pushing a few stray strands of hair from her face behind her ear and jumped. She looked over to see Cheshire holding her face and moving it to tilt to one side so she could have a better look at her ear, where a bullet had skimmed it earlier that week, inspecting it in the dying light of the day.

It had left a tiny burn that Moira easily managed to fix, but considering that Elizabeth ‘Calamity’ Ashe had obviously been trying to kill her with a blast to the face before Cheshire tackled her, tilting the shot… she shivered a bit, covering her arms in goosebumps, but she forced her face to seem slightly annoyed.

“Dios Mío, I told you that it was just a graze and Moira already fixed it-“ Sombra began, about to push her hands away, only for Cheshire to say, “You’ve been out of it fer yonks. ‘N you’ll hafta excuse me fer not trustin’ tha’ cunt as far as I could throw ‘er. Our history asoide, she was supposed ta help Widow after tha’ whiny bitch landed a motorboike on ‘er legs after she flew outta th’ car ‘n onta th’ ground. ‘N instead, you ‘n Mista Fista dragged ‘er inta a garage ta get ‘er out of th’ crossfoire ‘n then I had ta cut ‘er legs open ta realign ‘er broken bones while tha’ witch was playin’ ‘round!” she cried, annoyed, “How th’ fuck can I be sure she did a good job fixin’ you up when she couldn’ be bothered ta do it in an emergency?!”

Sombra sighed, that meeting with Deadlock really had gone south quickly…

After using her translocater to get the car and bring it around, they all piled in, Moira hit on Cheshire for the upteenth time by pointing out that there were only five seats while there were six of them and meant that _someone _would have to sit on someone else’s lap. Cheshire stabbed her once with her claws before she walked over to a motorcycle with the keys still in it and said she’d stay back and help thin the crowd a bit before she’d catch up.

Apparently the bike had belonged to Ashe, because when she drove off with it, she ran outside and shouted, “HEY! THAT’S _MY_ BIKE!”

“IF YA DIDN’ WANT NO ONE KNICKIN’ IT, THEN DON’ BE A FUCKIN’ DRONGO ‘N LEAVE TH’ KEYS IN TH’ IGNITION!!” Cheshire had shouted back before manuvering it around a corner behind them, waiting for the group to come on their motorcycles, the others flying down the path as quickly as they could, before she joined the crowd and began slicing at bikes and guns, punching and kicking a few people out of their seats.

But she’d been too busy thinning the crowd and they’d been too busy focusing on driving or shooting at the bikers closing in to notice that Ashe had a stick of lit dynamite until it was too late. She threw it under the car and it blew up from underneath them, launching Widowmaker, who had been leaning out the car window to shoot at the approaching bikers had flipped out of the window and landed hard on the ground, taking the breath out of her and probably breaking a rib or two. (Which wouldn’t have happened if she’d put on her seatbelt like Reaper always bitched at her to do.) The others’d had their seatbelts on, but the car had landed hard and it took them a moment to recover from the rise and fall and make sure they were fine.

During that time, Ashe happily launched herself a few feet in the air with a shot with a smaller gun onto the ground and started plummeting towards Widowmaker.

Widowmaker saw her and but considering she needed more than just a millisecond to recover from that, she only could scream in anger as Ashe’s bike landed on her legs, sending the sound of sickening cracks into the air before lifting off of her and smiling down at her handiwork as she turned to the side. She had been leveling her shotgun at her when Cheshire rolled up towards her, claws out.

Ashe leapt off the bike, still getting a set of nasty scratches on her back, but nothing deep enough to be a problem. Cheshire did hop off the bike as well and attack her again, only for her Omnic bodyguard to grab her by her tanktop and fling her away before a machine gun popped out of his arm.

“Oh. Oh, ‘m gonna enjoy turnin’ ya inta _scrap_.” Cheshire snarled as she then rolled in the dirt, bullets hissing into the dry dirt as she then used her claw to help her manuver around a large rock to get cover before the bullets hit her.

At that point, Moira and Reaper managed to materialize out of their seatbelts and the car and help her out with the goons finally breaking and running up to help.

Sombra and Doomfist left the car at the same time and gathered Widowmaker, Sombra helping him carefully load her into his arms so they could move her somewhere safe. Which they decided would be an empty garage, since most of the buildings randomly had no doors and the metal shutters of the garage provided some extra protection. It did take Sombra a second to pull them down, using her cloaking to hide her. After they had her somewhat secured on the ground and placed several large tool boxes around her to further block her from view and danger, Doomfist called for Moira to come and help.

No answer.

“Moira? MOIRA, RESPOND!” He cried into it, furious. When there was still no response, he snarled, “Reaper, Cheshire, do either of you have sights on Moira?”

“Koinda busy roight now.” Cheshire said before the sound of bullets raining onto stone blared through the comms. It lasted for a good minute or two before she shouted, “IS THA’ TH’ BEST YA GOT, YA STUPID POILE OF USELESS SCRAP?! MY NAN HAD BETTAH AIM ‘N SHE WAS HALF BLOIND!!”

Then the sound started up again.

“_She went around a corner to chase after a few underlings last I saw her, but I have no idea where she is now or why she’s not responding_.” Reaper enlightened them, “_Cheshire has been taking on the bodyguard and I’ve been handling the goons_.”

“Wanna switch?” Cheshire asked before another loud round of bullets sounded off again.

“_No_.” Reaper said plainly.

“Can ya at least give me a window ‘ere?” She asked a bit annoyed, “Th’ fuckin’ thing’s got a machine gun installed, but th’ bot itself wasn’ designed fer shootin’, ‘specially at th’ rate it is. At most, it can handle a few seconds ‘fore it needs ta cool down fer a tick. ‘N while ‘m fast on me feet, got two snoipers tha’ll have a clear shot at me th’ moment I get out from behoind ‘ere ta cut off th’ gun.”

“_Fine, I’ll handle the snipers_.” He agreed.

“Ta!” she said, another round of bullets blasting through the comms.

Doomfist frowned and looked to Sombra, “Do you think you can-“

A shot rang out and they looked to see Ashe standing in an open doorway, “Well, well, well… Look what I found.”

“You test my patience.” Doomfist growled, clenching both fists, “Sombra, stay here with Widowmaker, keep calling Moira.”

She nodded as Ashe aimed and Doomfist charged, taking the fight back outside before inspecting Widowmaker’s condition, she was sweating profusely and color was draining from her face.

She had a flash back of one of the older kids in her neighborhood propped up against a destroyed wall, breathing heavily as they managed to wheeze out a, ‘_Corre, Olivia, corre_.’

“Moira, your ass better be here in five seconds because Widowmaker is starting to look more blue than purple!” she shouted into the comms, taking a few shots at some goons who seemed to think peeking into the garage was a good idea.

“What color’s th’ blood?” Cheshire had asked, more sounds of metal slicing metal.

“Qué?” Sombra had replied, confused by the random question and wondering for a moment if she was asking because she didn’t know if her skin was blue and her blood made her look purple or…

“Christ, Sombra, you know I don’ speak Spanish…” she heard a huff as the clash continued in the background, “Is th’ blood dark loike closer ta a dark red to an almost purple color or loike the regular red blood?”

She leaned closer to get a better look at her legs, “It’s closer to the normal color, but there is still a lot of it.”

“Well, good news is tha’ no major blood vessels have been fucked up, so she won’ bleed out roight away.” Cheshire informed them, “But I saw ‘er legs ‘fore this FUCKIN’ TIN CAN,” the sound of something heavy and metal hitting the ground before more gun fire started happening in the background, “tossed me.” She finished, “Don’ think I need ta tell ya tha’ ‘er bones stickin’ out loike tha’ is a bad thing. ‘N tha’ if we leave it loike tha’ at a place loike this ‘n with no medical equipment, then they can become infected pretty quick. Seen it happen ‘nough toimes back home ta know it ain’ pretty or fun. Best thing ta do would be ta realign ‘er bones ta keep ‘um from cuttin’ anythin’ important if we move ‘er again ‘n ta stop th’ bleedin’.”

“You know how to do that?” Sombra had asked her, shocked. Cheshire had helped with a dislocated shoulder and managed to help with a sprain or two by stabilizing it, but her knowing how to do anything more complex like putting shattered bones back together again was news to her.

“… I ain’ no doctor, but I’ve done it ‘fore, I can prob’ly manage. But it’ll be painful ‘n I can’ promise I can avoid cuttin’ any important blood vessels tryin’ ta fix ‘er. ‘N no tellin’ what koinda supplies th’ people left when they abandoned this place…” Cheshire said, “But I’ll only do it if Widow okays it. They’re ‘er legs.”

“Why would you cut anything important?” Sombra asked, dread beginning to pool in her stomach.

“_Because she’ll probably have to cut her legs open to realign them properly_.” Reaper guessed, “_In case you forgot,_ _Junkertown doesn’t exactly have doctors or medical supplies. Whatever happens, they have to manage it themselves with what little they can steal_.”

“’N any place tha’s got medical supplies always call th’ coppers th’ moment they see a Junker, that’s why we made a deal with th’ mafia way back, they can get th’ stuff legally, but it costs a pretty penny fer us ta get, so we’re still screwed fer the most part in tha’ regard.” She confirmed, “But even if there are some first aid supplies left ovah from whenever th’ people ‘ere legged it, I’ve had people cark it while I was tryin’ ta save ‘um ‘fore… sometoimes they’d die aftah I did somethin’ loike this. Dunno from what exactly, but I’d wager it was from an infection or internal bleedin’. Tha’s why I’ll only do it if Widow says she’s foine with it. ‘Er loife, ‘er choice.”

It had been quiet for a moment before Widowmaker finally managed to speak for the first time since she fell out of the car, “What is… your… success rate?”

“I’ve saved more than I’ve failed, but it always hurt and some of them did have issues later on.” She informed her.

“I can’t… feel… anything.” Widowmaker had replied, “So that… won’t be… a problem.”

“’Roight, on my way.” She said, “Sombra, see what ya can foind in there, they’d prob’ly keep a first aid kit either in th’ bathroom or th’ break room.”

Sombra searched a small break area and found a roll of bandages and antiseptic, a bit disappointed that she couldn’t find more, but wasn’t sure exactly what she should even find and put them on top of one of the tool boxes that surrounded Widowmaker. When Cheshire walked into the garage, she had a bottle of whiskey and a chunk of wood in one hand and what looked like an omnic head in the other, “Hold this.” She said, shoving the head in her hands as she went to inspect the tools on the wall.

“Uh, why am I holding this?” Sombra asked, the disembodied head staring right at her with blank eyes, creeping her out.

“Cause I was gonna just stab a blade inta it’s main processor, but then I thought ‘bout it. This bot has ta deal with tha’ whiny wannabe cowgirl bitch every. _Damn._ **_Day._** So I figured I’d leave it’s processor be ‘n let it suffah more. Tha’ ‘n it’d be funny ta see how th’ Ashe sheila’d react if I threw this at ‘er.” She replied simply before finding a welder and goggles, put the whiskey and wood by the bandages and put the goggles on, “Also, I hafta admit, th’ mustache is a noice touch.” She smiled that infamous Cheshire cat smile as the welder unleased a bright blue flame, “Ohh, lucky me, still got some gas goin’ ‘ere.”

After confirming it worked, she used it to heat up her blades and after having her put a chunk of wood from a railing outside in her mouth, she gave a soft apology to Widowmaker and began cutting into her legs to help reset the bones.

Sombra winced at the sounds and quickly turned her head and the omnic, whose name was B.O.B if she remembered right,’s head away from the carnage and winced at the sounds as she continued to hiss into the comm. for Moira.

When she finally did respond, she told them that, “I’m terribly sorry for the delay, but I was toying with a set of triplets…”

“YOU WASTED TIME YOU COULD HAVE SPENT HELPING AMÉLIE TO PLAY WITH DEADLOCK FOOLS?!” Doomfist roared, obviously pissed.

“I was playing with triplets, Akande, _triplets_.” She stressed.

“NO ONE WANTS TO HEAR ABOUT YOUR FETISHES, MOIRA!” Sombra had shouted.

Cheshire gagged, “I think ‘m gonna be sick.” she mumbled, disgusted.

“Don’t _you_ **_dare_**.” Widowmaker hissed.

“_They called in back up, could use some help here_.” Reaper reported, gunfire blasting in the background.

“Moira, swap places with Cheshire!” Doomfist ordered.

“So she can’t stick around?” She asked, sounding a bit disappointed.

“**_Moira_**!” The Talon agents shouted.

“Alright, alright.” She huffed, appearing in the doorway a moment later and looking put out as she walked into the garage, Cheshire standing, her claws and hands covered in blood as she poured a good portion of the whiskey on Widowmaker’s legs and then handed her the rest of the bottle. She glared at Moira, disgusted, before stomping past, seeming to calm down when she reached Sombra, “I’ll take tha’, thanks.” She said, indicating the head.

She handed it over and glanced over to see Moira finally doing her fucking job, feeling Cheshire’s hand on her shoulder.

“Took fuckin’ forevah, but she’s finally got ‘er, come on. We need ta figure out how ta get outta ‘ere. Th’ car we came in prob’ly ain’ in good shape.”

Sombra nodded in agreement, “I’ll cloak and search, you search and destroy.” She said.

“Foine by me, boss.” She laughed before running back into the fray, not doing a single thing about the blood on her hands and claws that dripped onto the ground, B.O.B’s head stuffed under her arm.

Sombra searched for a while, hacking a few of their omnic members as she went until she found a pick up truck behind one of the buildings and pretty much out of the way of the fray. It was an older model, with wheels, and no key left inside. She pressed her comm., “Cheshire, what do you know about hot wiring a car?”

“What don’ I know?” She replied, her voice chipper and excited at the prospect, “What koind ‘n how old?”

“I don’t know, it’s a pick up truck and has wheels.” Sombra said, “So it’s pretty old...”

“Ones with wheels still have electrical systems for the most part, hell even ones tha’ ran on gas had tha’, well, cept th’ ones from over a century ago, but I’ve managed ta knick one of those too.”

“Seriously?” She asked, shocked.

“_Most cars had electrical systems since before I was born_.” Reaper told her, “_But the real question is if it has a computer system in it_.”

“Look, jus’ try doin’ yer thin’ first. If ya can’ hack it, let me know ‘n I’ll start crossin’ wires.” Cheshire said.

Sombra pulled up a screen and began doing her thing, surprised to find that, while the code was old, it was there. She looked at her options and smiled when she found that she could unlock it and start it without needing a key or anything.

“Got it.” She said, feeling proud of herself… until she felt something pressing against the back of her head, “I see you.” Ashe sang.

_Mierda, se desvaneció._

Sombra turned, pulling her gun but knowing that there was no point, she had the gun to her head and she probably already had her finger on the trigger.

But she sure as hell wasn’t going down without a fight!

“Fuckin’ CUNT!” She heard as a red and yellow blur rammed into Ashe, the shot whizzing by her head, burning the side of her ear as it passed and breaking the front two windows.

She stood, shaking as she watched her bodyguard let out a shout as she bashed the omnic’s head against Ashe’s so hard that she was knocked out cold. She threw the head into her stomach and gave her a kick, “Slaggah.” She snarled before turning to her, her eyes widening with concern as she began to inspect her, “You ‘roight? ‘M so sorry, Sombra, I should’ve been ‘ere sooner.” She blurted, putting her blood soaked hands on her shoulders, “Sombra?”

Sombra felt her eyes sting with tears despite herself. She had nearly been killed a few times in her life, she’d always act as if it didn’t bother her and that it was no big deal. But whenever she finally got away to someplace safe and devoid of any who would think lesser of her for it, she’d start crying and let go of the terror and fear she’d kept locked in her chest. But for some reason, just seeing this wild woman from a radiated hell hole covered in blood while looking so worried about her made her eyes start to water.

‘_Cuándo fue la última vez que alguien se preocupó tanto por me_?’ she asked herself. She was paying for her to protect her, not to care. But… at the same time, she felt an ache in her chest knowing that this person, who she’d only known for, what, a few months cared about her, not just as a client, a body to protect, but as a person.

The Junker finally found the spot on her ear and frowned, “Well, ‘m glad it was jus’ a graze, but we ain’ in any place where you should have any koinda wound.”

She placed her fingers over her ear, wincing a bit, “It’s probably just a bit of a burn, I-I’ll be foine.”

“A little burn can get infected if not treated proper.” Cheshire said her eyes fierce at the idea that any kind of wound wasn’t something to be taken seriously, “You know how many people brushed off wounds back home ‘cause they was toiny ‘n had ta get limbs cut off ‘cause of gangrene not too long later? Too many. ‘N ‘soides tha’, you nearly had yer head blown off, no one feels all tha’ good after somethin’ loike tha’!”

Sombra opened her mouth to argue, only for her to choke out a sob. Cheshire’s eyes widened in shock as tears started to stream down her face and after a moment of shock, she pulled her close, “It’s okay, Sombra, it’s okay. ‘M roight ‘ere, no one’s gonna take ‘nother shot at ya.” She cooed softly as she rubbed her back.

They stayed like that for a few seconds before Sombra pushed her away and wiped at her face, embarrassed, “T-this stays between you and me!” she blurted.

“If anyone asks, th’ bitch threw sand in yer eyes.” Cheshire offered, her voice still soft and gentle as she rose her hands in mock surrender, “Now get in th’ car, ‘m drivin’.” Sombra got into the car and Cheshire walked back over to Ashe and snatched her hat before getting in the driver’s seat.

She drove up and they all hopped in and they got the hell out of there, Cheshire making sure to put Ashe’s hat on Widowmaker as they loaded her into the back, “Tha’ should keep th’ sun off ya, you’ve lost a lot of blood ‘n sweat a lot, yer prob’ly gonna be dehydrated from tha’ alone. ‘N while I prob’ly shouldn’ have given ya whiskey ‘cause tha’ won’ help ya much with tha’, if ya don’ have something ta help give ya a little shade, yer gonna be cooked by th’ toime we get somewhere safe.” She told her.

Widowmaker looked at the hat, obviously not pleased to be wearing it, only complaining once about the smell before settling in the hot back of the truck with her arms crossed. Reaper handed her a bottled water that he’d apparently snatched from the hotel he was in before (since all that black in this heat was a bad idea without water.) and told her to take small sips as Doomfist and Moira climbed into the back as well and Cheshire drove out of there like a bat out of hell.

They got to a motel within a few hours and Sombra paid for their stay while they cleaned up (Cheshire had stolen one of Ashe’s credit cards and she used that to pay for everything) and they recovered for the rest of the day before they headed to an airport to get a flight to New York City. Where they had clothing, fancy rooms and Sombra took this time to convince Doomfist to let them have a few days to relax and rest, not that she needed to work too hard to do that.

After what happened, he agreed that they needed a few days to recover, except for Moira, as she was to go back to Oasis to fulfill her abandoned duties as a Minister. Meanwhile Doomfist had made calls so when she returned to her lab at Talon, she’d find it a bit bare with many of her project files locked behind digital strongholds (made marvelously by Sombra). If she wanted to work freely in the lab again, she was going to need to be better about doing her job on the field once again.

After two days to relax in New York while picking up clothes for their meeting with Molly and looking for a nice birthday present, they hopped a plane to the Talon base and rested there until this morning, when they hopped on a plane here to get here.

“Sombra!” Cheshire’s voice broke through her thoughts, “Fer Christ’s sake, I know plane roides wear you out, but you’ve been out of it fer fifteen minutes!”

She snapped out of her daze, finding herself sitting on a couch with a table in front of her with two glasses of milk sitting in front of her, the wine glass and the beer can no where to be found while Cheshire holding a large tray with a stern expression. “If yer tha’ toired, ya can go ta bed after ya eat.” She told her as she placed a big bowl in front of her, a familiar scent drifting into her nose and perking her up.

“Is this Chili Con Carne?!” she exclaimed excitedly, her mouth starting to water as she looked at one of her favorite dishes sitting in front of her with a large spoon in it.

“Figured it would perk ya roight up!” she said with a smile, “I know how ya really love yer food spoicy so I asked them ta add some extra heat to it!”

Sombra stiffened, “H-how did you…?”

“I’ve spent ‘nough toime with ya ta remember th’ stuff ya order while we’re out travellin’ is extra spoicy unless we’re gettin’ dessert or milk.” She said, putting down the other dish and sitting across from her on a chair, as she plopped the tray in an empty spot beside her, a big pitcher of milk on it. “Loike when we was in Thailand, ya ordered food tha’ th’ local blokes told me made tourists beg fer milk ‘n ice cream ta cool their mouths down th’ moment after their tongues hover over it. Think those were called; Tom Laeng, Gaeng Som, Som Tam, Gaeng Kua Kling, ‘n I think th’ last one was pronounced gaeng tai pla?” She recited, her fingers flicking outwards from her palm as she overexaggerated the pronouncation of the dishes before she then stabbed her fork at a small pie, “But I do know fer a fact tha’ you really love Chili Con Carne! Order it every chance ya get no mattah where we go, so when I saw it on th’ room service menu, I knew you’d loike it!” she said as she took a bite, letting out a happy hum.

Sombra blinked, surprised. She had no idea that Cheshire had noticed that about her, hell, she doubted anyone had noticed that about her in years, even Baptiste didn’t know that about her. He used to tell her how he was always looking forward to their ‘who can handle the most spice’ contest, saying it was a ‘fun game’ they’d play. He’d never seemed to understand that it was more of a personal taste preference than a fun challenge with a friend. The last people who probably noticed her love of spice were her parents…

_‘Mi vida!’ _Her mother’s voice called in her head as the scent of the spices in her food wrapped around her, ‘_Entra! Hice ti favorito_!’

“My Mama used to make it all the time.” She said softly, “Hers was always the best. Super spicy but filling and I’d have a warm belly all night…” She looked down at the plate and picked up her spoon, struggling not to remember the day she lost her Mama and Papa as she poked at the food, to remind herself that the red of the dish wasn’t the blood that seeped down those steps…

“I-I keep ordering it, but I haven’t found one as good as hers. Part of me thinks that maybe I’m just overexaggerating how great it was in my mind…” she said, trying to down play her surprising reveal of such personal information.

“I doubt it.” Cheshire dismissed immediately, before pointing at her with her fork, “My Mum used ta make the best Lamington cakes you’d ever tasted. Always made ‘um fer special occasions. After-“ she stopped and cleared her throat before continuing on, “After me parents were killed, I-I tried makin’ one fer me sistah’s birthday. I’d seen Mum make it hundreds of toimes, knew the recipe by heart, figured I could do it jus’ as good…” She shook her head, a sad smile on her face, “Didn’ taste nothin’ loike it, started cryin’ ‘n ‘pologizin’ ta ‘er. Felt loike I failed. _Again_. But ya know what she said?”

Sombra shook her head, finally taking a bite of her food, surprised to find that the spice level was just right and that it had her tastebuds tingling in all the right places.

“She said, ‘Sis, of course it don’ taste loike Mum’s! Mum’s had a Mum’s love in it, your’s has a sister’s love in it! ‘N while it don’ taste loike Mum’s, I loike th’ taste of this too!’”Cheshire’s eyes watered a bit and she hastily wiped at her face with the back of her hand before swallowing and squeaking, “_Anyways_, I guess what ‘m tryin’ ta say is tha’, you prob’ly ‘member roight, it’s jus’ it’s hard ta foind a flavor similar ta yer Mum’s love in th’ food. Tha’s why it never tastes as good.”

Sombra stared at her for a moment, her mind processing the sugary sweet, but somehow still true words.

While it was probably true that her Mama probably put a few personal touches in her Chili, probably ones that catered specifically to her tastes… The fact that she could vividly remember eating it with her Mama and Papa, making towers with it and cornbread and how she and her Papa would try to see who could stuff the tallest tower of chili into their mouths and how she’d fall asleep on her Papa’s lap after she was full that made it all the more memorable in her head.

“A Mama’s love, huh?” She said softly as she took another bite of her chili, the spices making her eyes start to water, at least, that’s what she decided to say if Cheshire asked. Although, knowing Cheshire, she probably wouldn’t say anything about it, she was good like that, she always seemed to know why she was crying, probably due to the fact that she always had an eye on her, and never really asked about it. She always did something to help cheer her up instead.

“Maybe after we eat, we can see if there’s a place where you can try to make that cake again.” She found herself saying.

“Huh?” She blurted, choking a bit on her meat pie a bit, obviously just as surprised by the suggestion as she was, before she coughed out a “What are… you on ‘bout?”

“You’re a mom now.” She pointed out, “I bet you could make a nice cake for your little girl that tastes like how your Mama made it.”

“… huh… never thought… ‘bout it loike tha’.” She managed before taking a sip of her milk to soothe her coughing fit. It was quiet as Cheshire tried to get a handle on her coughing and Sombra continued to eat. She was pleasantly surprised to find that this chili, while not her Mama’s and not made by someone who cared about her or even really knew anything about her, somehow tasted closer to her mother’s than any of the rest.

‘I know how ya really love yer food spoicy so I asked them ta add some extra heat to it!’

Did… did that simple request…?

Cheshire finally took another bite of her pie, a watery smile forming on her face as she chewed and swallowed before looking up at her, ending the silence with a, “Sure you’d be up fer tha’? Makin’ a cake thing, I mean.”

“As long as you make one for me too, I have no idea what a Lamington cake is, but it sounds good.” Sombra said.

“It’s sponge cake coated in chocolate sauce ‘n rolled in coconut. Ya let th’ mixture soak in ‘n it gives it a noice texture. Then you have a layer between th’ cake with a cream or strawberry jam fillin’ between two halves of it.” She paused, thoughtful, “Me Mum stuck with cream fer th’ fillin’s, but considering tha’ Mac told me tha’ Molly loves strawberry jam, maybe I’ll change th’ recipe up a bit on tha’ end.”

“Sounds good to me.” Sombra agreed, a bit excited now to try this new dessert. The two happily and eagerly digging into their meals and trying out each other’s foods while chatting and swapping stories. Sombra found that meat pies were actually pretty tasty (could use some spice though) and laughed her ass off when Cheshire’s face went crimson after trying a tiny bite of her food and watched her chug her glass of milk, then the pitcher, then she became so desperate that she drank all the tiny coffee creamers in the kitchen to stop the burning feeling on her tongue.

Once they were done and left the dishes outside for the staff to gather, Sombra found a community kitchen and they bought their supplies, laughing and chatting the whole time as they did so. Then, once they got to the kitchen, Cheshire talked her through the steps, telling her stories about funny things that happened when she was a kid while they waited for the two cakes (One sample cake and one for the little birthday girl) to bake and got the chocolate sauce and shredded coconut ready.

Finally, the cake was complete and they took a small slice each to try it out.

Sombra’s mind was blown when she took her first bite, the fruits and the chocolate held a delicate balance of sweetness and tang while the coconut and chocolate syrup had given the cake such a unique texture and kept the inside moist and rich.

She turned to her bodyguard, “I dunno if this tastes like your Mama’s, but _this_ is _really_ good!” she gushed, happily scooping up another forkful.

“Nah, loike I said, me Mum’s had cream fillin’s, but yer roight, th’ jam is really good too.” She said, her smile warm and gentle. They packed up the cakes and Sombra was surprised when Cheshire cut another slice of the sample cake they’d made and wrapped it up separately.

“Who’s that for? Roadhog? You gonna try to charm him through his stomach?” Sombra teased.

“Been there, tried tha’, didn’ work. ‘E’s a bettah cook than I am.” Cheshire replied.

“Seriously?” Sombra blurted, picturing Roadhog in a ‘Kiss the Cook’ apron and starting to snicker at the thought.

“Struth! Mac was always good in th’ kitchen, ‘parently ‘e used ta cook with ‘is Mum all th’ toime growin’ up. Wish I did tha’ more with my parents, me Da’ used ta make th’ best barramundi, always perfectly seared…” she said, her voice fading away as she looked at her and handed her the wrapped slice, “This is fer Baptiste. I dunno what happened tha’ made him choose ta leave Talon, but I don’ think you two should stop bein’ mates jus’ ‘cause of professional differences. Ya didn’ become mates jus’ ‘cause ya worked togetha, you two prob’ly had things in common ‘n still do. So if we see ‘im tomorrow, give ‘im tha’.”

Sombra’s stomach sank, her fingers digging into the parchment paper Cheshire had wrapped it in.

“Doomfist said-“ she began.

“Oh fuck Mista Fista ‘n ‘is orders!” She snapped, “Last I checked, ‘e okayed our holiday ‘n it ain’ ovah yet! So if ‘e wants ta tell us ta kill yer mate while we’re ‘ere, ‘e can get stuffed! What we do durin’ our off hours ain’ any of his bloody business, ‘n who’s ta fuckin’ say we even see ‘im while we’re out ‘ere? Fer all we know, some of their lot went ta Brazil ta pick ‘um up ‘n are jus’ comin’ back with ‘im now! ‘N soides, since when have you evah blindly followed someone else’s orders instead of yer own morals?! ‘Cause you could’ve helped Moira snatch me daughter up ‘n take ‘er ta Talon headquarters, but ya didn’! Ya stood yer ground ‘n told ‘er ta bugger off! From what Reap told me, you ‘n Baptiste were good mates ‘n I know bettah than most how much a good mate means ta sheilas loike us.”

“Like _us?”_ she repeated.

“Sheilas who don’ got a lot of friends, be it by bein’ awkward or defensive or both. Sheilas who wanted ta do roight by others ‘n refused ta back down without a fight. Sheilas whose foights got them in over their heads. Sheilas who had to survive as crims, but still try ta do roight by others despite everything.” She looked at her, her violet eyes bright with determination and strength, “I failed ta protect me family, me home ‘n a lot of people I fought along soide ‘n th’ ALF, but I’d be _damned_ if I failed to protect a scared teenage girl who some sick bastard dragged inta an alleyway fer somethin’ twisted ‘n fucked up on ‘er way home from th’ store ta pick up cough meds fer ‘er Mum!” she cried, her voice so thick with pain, anger and resolve that Sombra jerked back a bit at the sound of it, watching as the Junker woman shook from the memory, her face twisted in an expression of rage.

Cheshire took a deep breath to calm herself, “Sorry.” She exhaled, “Didn’ mean ta scare ya.” Her hands shook as she clutched the bag with the specially made cake for her daughter as she took deep breaths in and out. Once her shaking stopped, she spoke, in a soft voice, “Look, my point is, sheilas loike us, it’s hard ta make friends. Fer a lot of reasons. So when good mate comes around, they’re somethin’ ta hang onta. If yer worried ‘bout Mista Fista blowin’ up at ya, I’ll handle ‘im. Jus’… jus’ don’ let somethin’ as small as this ruin a friendship, ‘roight?”

Sombra stared at her for a moment, her throat becoming thick with emotion and finding it suddenly hard to breathe. The question that kept popping back up in her mind making her eyes start to sting;

Who was the last person other than Baptiste or her family who cared this much about her?

“Hey.” She called. The blonde turned, her eyes glassy with unshed tears and jerked her head back a bit in surprise as she held out her hand, “Olivia Colomar.”

She blinked, stunned and she could understand why. Junkrat had told Sombra that telling someone your real name was a big deal in Junker culture, something that showed you truly trusted and cared for someone way back when he and Roadhog had worked with her. Sombra understood that, as she’d hidden her real name for years to keep herself safe from those in the Mexican government, along with any others who were after her, for years. So basically, what the Junkers did by having monikers was essentially the same thing she had been doing to keep herself safe…

But this woman had shown that she was more than just a mercenary for hire, she showed that she would be a good mom.

Cheshire’s eyes began to leak as she took it with a firm grip and gave it a good shake, “Chelsea Carroll.” She replied.

“Yeah, I know, I saw your wanted poster.” Sombra replied with a smirk.

“Smart arse.” She chuckled as she let go of her hand to wipe at her face before walking back towards her and threw her free arm around her shoulder, “Come on, let’s head back. It’s gettin’ late, ‘m knackered ‘n I don’ wanna be late tomorrow.”

“Fine _Mama_, we’ll go back and go to bed.” Sombra teased, smiling as she steered her back towards the hotel as a huge weight finally was lifted from her chest. She didn’t have to lose a friend, and she even managed to get another one.

_'Esa es una niña afortunada por tener una madre tan buena.'_ She thought, the cake in her hands still warm.


	57. Diagnosis: Nightmare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mercy remembers the night of the fire of Overwatch Headquarters and goes to get a glass of water.

Angela had woken up in the middle of the night with a start, recalling that night in Switzerland so vividly, pulling up to the site of the explosion, the screams, the scent of fire and burning flesh, the creaking of metal and the sight of her Halloween bestie on the ground, his leg and side still pinned to the ground as his flesh began turning into smoke as she tried using her Nano, his eyes wide and his words venomous;

_“What have you done to me?”_

She held herself for a moment before checking her pulse as she panted, sweat soaked hair sticking to the back of her neck and her face as she grabbed her phone and pulled up the timer app and began counting while the timer ticked away.

When the timer went off, she had confirmed it, her heart rate was elevated, as expected.

She sighed, closed her eyes and then began sucking in deep breaths as she pulled her hair off her face and neck, her fingers feeling cool against her skin. She knew it would be, but counting the bouncing of her pulse against her fingers was a way for her to gather her thoughts, to focus on something else other than Gabe’s face pulled into a furious expression from her memory and dream as he turned to smoke.

Ever since Winston called Ana and Jack out on knowing Reaper’s true identity and how Molly had to tell him what they knew, she’d feared that she’d be called out too.

But she hadn’t, lucky for her, and no one had confronted her about it since the announcement the night before. She cast her mind back as she tried to recall if she’d ever really thought about Gabe while Molly was around. She didn’t think so, and even if she had, Molly’s subconscious had been blocking out her powers until about a month or so ago.

But still, the whole ‘Molly said that she didn’t see how he got his ability to turn into smoke from Reaper’ thing had made her start wondering how much Molly may have seen from her own head.

And if she had kept quiet to protect her.

She opened her eyes and adjusted to the small amount of light her alarm clock gave off and squinted at her nightstand, trying to read the numbers on it.

3:32 am

“Verdammit.” She grumbled as she collapsed back onto the bed. She would have to get up in about three and a half hours, get ready for the meeting today and leave with Junkrat, Molly and Bob at 10:00 am to meet Cheshire and Sombra at the restaurant in town.

But she’d probably lie awake until she had to get up, because of course she would today of all days.

Perhaps she should grab some chamomile tea? That always calmed her nerves when she had nightmares… hopefully it could help her get just a tiny bit more sleep before she had to get up for the day…

Angela pulled herself out of bed with a groan, her body protesting the idea of leaving her bed. She made a note to ask Symmetra if she could join her the next time she did yoga to get some exercise, as a work out with Zarya would most likely leave her too sore to do her job if something happened.

She opened her door and winced at the change of light in the hallway, the emergency lights there brighter than her dark bedroom. After taking a moment to adjust, she braved her way out into the hallway and made her way to the kitchen, her mind drifting back to that day.

The day the Swiss Overwatch base was blown up.

The smells of smoke, fire, iron, burning hair and flesh was thick in the dark smoke. The light of the fire on the moonless night, the movement of the flames shifting the shadows on the injured crawling out of the remains of the base...

She had left Overwatch a few weeks before, wondering what she should do from now on while staying in a small apartment not too far from the Swiss base. When she suddenly felt the ground shake and a loud boom in the distance. She glanced out her window and saw the rising smoke and immediately grabbed her keys and drove back to the base like a mad woman, her mind racing with worry as the sirens of ambulances and fire trucks began to shriek behind her.

She hopped out of her car, not doing much past putting it in park and leaving her keys and everything else behind as she grabbed her staff out of her car (she had taken it with her when she left, it was legally hers and none of them were going to fight her on that anyways) and ran towards the flames with it tucked under her arm while she moved her silk scarf from around her neck to cover her nose and mouth to keep the smoke out of her lungs.

She had saved about ten people and helped about seven more people to help move those who had been knocked out by the blast out of danger before she found him.

When she had found him, he had been irate, shouting at her to leave him because everyone was on Jack’s side and just started ranting about how no one appreciated him and such.

She had been taken aback by the anger and the resentment, but went to help him with his injuries anyway, despite his nasty comments to her.

But it went horribly, horribly wrong…

‘_What have you done to me?!_’

She shook her head as she reached for the door to the mess hall, she still had no idea how her nano had caused such a reaction or completely what happened to him afterwards, as he started screaming and turning into smoke before vanishing before her eyes. She had collapsed to her knees and started at the spot for what felt like ages before a scream in the distance snapped her out of it and she quickly fled the scene to help, not looking back where her friend once laid…

Jesse and Genji were probably right about Moira having something to do with it, but Angela had been one of the few who ever really knew she had worked for Overwatch at all and she was definitely the only one who Gabe let be in charge of treating the woman’s test subjects when she was done with them, and it was probably because she knew who had done it and was able to use that information to help.

But Jesse and Genji’s recollections of Moira treating Gabriel for some unknown genetic condition was news to her, as he never mentioned any of that for the check ups he’d done with her or any of the other medical staff and it wasn’t in his files at all. She knew that he and Jack had been ‘genetically enhanced’ to become ‘the perfect soldiers’, but the data on what they had done to them had been blacked out and the US government had made sure the people who had done it never were recorded down and probably made sure that they never spoke of it. But if Gabe had been honest with those two, then it was possible that whatever the US government had done to make him a perfect soldier had effected him in a way that could have effected his overall health as he got older. And while she’d bet that Moira had long ago figured out what they’d done, she doubted that she’d have shared that information for various reasons, most of them probably selfish, and that she left no record of what had been changed before and after she had ‘treated’ Gabe all those years ago on any of their servers.

It was just as well, Blackwatch’s oversight was nonexistent since most of Blackwatch’s work was illegal and no one needed/wanted to know what they were ever up to if they could help it except for Gabe and the people he had go on these missions. So it was highly likely that Moira probably took that data with her when she abandoned Overwatch for that job with Hyde and that there would have been nothing else Angela could’ve known to do to help her old Halloween bestie.

“I wish she had left something behind.” She murmured to herself. If she had known what Moira had done, it would have been possible to find another way to help him. Physically, anyway, she had no idea what was going through that man’s head in Italy that started Overwatch’s downfall. But she had felt nothing but tension since then, although she did her best to ignore it for her patients’ sakes. But eventually, the growing tension and the militaristic methods Overwatch insisted upon had finally drove her out.

And a few weeks later, she had been sucked back into their affairs when the explosion happened and she went to help.

She walked into the kitchen as her own bitter words to the UN interrogator echoed in her head, “With all the tension and the pressure after Blackwatch was exposed… this outcome was, unfortunately, inevitable. I just wish their feud hadn’t taken so many more innocent lives with them.”

She gathered the kettle and began filling it with water, more memories of the fire, the victims, the headlines, the funerals…

She felt nausous. Dizzy even.

‘_What have you done to me?_’

“Ich habe versucht, dich zu retten.” She whispered as her eyes watered a bit, “_Und ich habe versagt_.”

“Angie?” a voice called from behind. She jumped, spilling water on herself as she turned to see Jack looking at her, surprised.

“Jack.” She breathed before scowling, “You scared me!”

He chuckled, “I scared the Queen of Fright. I’d ask Athena to play ‘We are the Champions’, but it’s a bit late for that.”

Her scowl became fiercer but his slightly smug expression didn’t falter as he leaned against the countertop, “So, any reason why you’re so jumpy tonight?”

She silently debated telling the truth, of unloading the burden she’d been carrying since that night… but at the same time, she knew that with that information revealed, he’d ask her mountains of questions she would probably never have the answers for and be furious at her for not telling them sooner. Not like he really had any room to talk in that regard, hell, they both had played dead for so long now…

“… I remembered the night the Swiss base exploded.” She finally whispered, deciding it would be best to keep it at that. He probably would simply nod and change the topic, since that night was probably a sore subject for him. He didn’t need to know that she made a monster by trying to save him, and hopefully, he never would.

“Ah.” He said, the smile slipping off of his face, “I nearly forgot you came up to help.”

“I had left Overwatch a little before then.” She reminded him, “I can understand why you’d forget I’d be there when I’d left.”

“As if you’d leave anyone you felt needed help alone, even if you left their organization.” He argued, looking a bit guilty, “Heard that you saved plenty of the others, was glad you were still around to help that night...”

“But I could not save all of them.” She said, her throat thick as the memories of charred bodies and the smell of burnt hair and flesh came back to her. She managed to keep herself from being ill into the sink, but she did feel a bit sick at the memory.

She heard him suck in a breath and waited for his ‘you can’t save them all’ speech. She’d memorized it years ago, it didn’t make her feel better about it then and it wouldn’t make her feel any better about it now. A loss of life was horrible, especially when there could have been some hope to save them and no matter how one tried to soften her failures, it never made the guilt and pain from them go away.

“… I don’t think I ever really properly apologized for playing dead for so long.” He said instead as he walked to the island and pulled out a stool, “Not to you, at least. Reinhardt and Torb were mad as hell, but they weren’t there that night. They weren’t helping move people out of the fire or providing aid like you were.” He looked her right in the eyes, “I know you Angie, you’ve always been a good kid, but you tend to blame yourself a bit too much for the few you’ve been unable to save.”

Angela remained silent and pulled at a roll of paper towels to clean up the mess she’d made around the sink while he sat down.

“How long have you blamed yourself for not saving me or Gabe?” He asked, his voice raw.

“… For you, it was until you revealed yourself in Cairo. For him…” She stared at the half filled kettle in the sink, “I still feel awful.”

“He didn’t become what he is now because you couldn’t patch him up.” Jack said.

Angela bit back a bitter snort, _wenn er nur wüsste_.

“He had started to get bitter about, well, a lot of things. You know how the UN was… _is_. It’s nothing but bureaucracy and selfishness.” He said, disgust heavy in his tone, “When the crisis was over, they started to forget about their duty to the people, no matter how crafty Talon was becoming, and how much they could sidestep us because we were bound by that bureaucracy. They refused to let us adapt to better fight fire with fire, they figured that they could just let Blackwatch do that work. It didn’t occur to them that Blackwatch was starting to become overwhelmed and that Gabe’s resources were limited due to the whole ‘Blackwatch doesn’t exist’ thing. Why would Overwatch need more bullets and weapons when we hardly fought like we did back during the crisis anymore?” he asked.

“The strain was everywhere. The UN, the world, Talon, then after that incident in Italy…” she said softly.

“It got ten times worse.” He finished for her, sounding tired, “You were right, what happened was inevitable. I just wish we didn’t take out so many good people…”

“You didn’t mean…” she began.

“Us meaning to isn’t the point. We did it. We can’t take it back. Those lives are lost forever because of us.”

Angela had nothing to say to that, while the casualties were less than they would be in such cases, many who survived came out with lost limbs or injuries that limited their ability to work.

“Winston has been trying to negotate with the UN about getting the PETRAS act repealed, but they want more control over Overwatch than they did before, and looking back, their control was half the problem last time.”

“And what was the other half?” She asked as she finally finished cleaning and was now refilling the kettle. He seemed to curl up in his seat, his fingers intertwined under his chin as his eyes went misty with thought.

“Gabe said we needed a bit less structure, less like a military. I believe you had some issues with that as well.” He mused.

She nodded, the military methods of their work had left bad tastes in her mouth and plagued her with nightmares years later that popped up every now and then.

“Looking back, there were times where there was a better way and I chose to stick to what I knew. If I had been more open minded, maybe things would have turned out better. But you can’t change the past…” He lowered his hands to the countertop, “I told a kid back in Dorado that I’m no hero. Not anymore, but looking back, I wonder if I really was one to start with...”

“Yet, here you are.” Angela said as she put the kettle onto the stove, “Back fighting for what is right.”

“I’ve committed crimes.” He said, “I have a ten million dollar bounty.”

“And you aren’t the only one who has a large bounty here, Jack. I mean, compared to Junkrat and Roadhog, that’s not even close!” she reminded him.

“Twenty five million isn’t that far off.” He argued.

“Twenty five million _each_, and that was before they took the crown jewels, if memory serves.” She countered.

“Roadhog and Junkrat lived in a hellhole. As much as I get on Junkrat’s case, Ana, Reinhardt and Torb keep reminding me that those two lived in a world where Darwin’s theory was basically the law of the land for over twenty years. Junkrat in particular since he was, three, maybe four years old?” He shook his head, “the ALF sent messages to Overwatch for help after the treaty. Told us that plenty of people were still being slaughtered and now the government was falsifying or lying about wills and deeds so they could make their Ominum on land that wasn’t theirs to take. Making it so when the people finally proved the land was their’s legally, it was too late, the government already developed on it and paid them way less than what it was worth and destroyed whatever was on it or in it.”

Angela froze at this information and turned to look at him, “_Was_?”

“The Australian UN member assured the others that those guys were just looking for attention and full of it, but after an investigation, the ALF’s messages were proven to be true… but it was too late. They’d already decided to take action themselves and so many innocents paid for it and still are.” He looked over at Angela, “That kid could’ve grown up, loved and supported, and then became a world renown engineering genius and explosives expert without the bounty or the rap sheet he has now, he could have changed the world for the better…” He squeezed at his hands, “If I feel this bad, I can’t imagine how Roadhog feels. He’s probably seen so many kids become twisted or die because we never answered their call for help and they felt they had to do something themselves…”

“That is enough!” She cried, unable to take it anymore, “Junkrat may not have grown up in the best environment, but even a radioactive hell hole and Darwin’s ‘survivial of the fittest’ lifestyle didn’t stop him from becoming a brilliant engineer and a skilled explosives expert all on his own without support or a proper education! And while I wish he could’ve grown up in a better environment too, we couldn’t fight the UN on it and you found proof that the ALF was telling the truth in the end, so even if the history books call them terrorists and such, the Australian government cannot say they hadn’t had a hand in it!”

She sucked in a breath, surprised at her outburst before continuing her rant, “And as for Roadhog, he probably does feel guilty, but he, much like you and I, knows that you can’t change the past. So instead of dwelling on it and blaming himself, he’s doing something to help change other’s futures. He’s taught Junkrat, Molly and several others here so much. And if he can’t teach, he’s usually around to help in someway. And while it may not make up for the damage and lives they’ve taken, or how their lives could’ve gone if Overwatch had stepped in sooner, they are walking forward with heads held high and I honestly think we should leave the blame for that for the Australian government and that UN representative. They should’ve handled everything better so this whole thing wouldn’t have happened!”

Jack stared at her, startled by her words before his frown finally melted into a small smile, “You know, now that you mention it, the Australian rep has been completely against Overwatch restarting without the UN’s strict control over it. Perhaps Winston should remind them that it was because they refused to allow us to help that the Omnium was destroyed by concerned citizens and Junkertown was created. Perhaps if we’d been able to meet with the ALF and confirm it in person and help them with the rogue Omnics, we all wouldn’t of had to learn what happens when you try to blow up an Omnium.”

“Someone would’ve found out eventually.” A female voice called from behind them.

The two turned to see Ana walk into the kitchen, she looked tired, but her eye had a spark of interest in it as she took a seat across from Jack, “And we’d have some sort of Junkertown somewhere else in the world. It would have happened at some point after the treaty, it was just a matter of where and when. Australia’s unethical method of obtaining the land and the other underhanded deeds they did to make their Omnium was simply the strike that lit the match and it was only a matter of time before the ALF’s plan to destroy the Omnium literally blew up in their faces.”

“Still,” Jack argued, “They don’t really have any argument for that stance when their denial of the ALF’s claims and orders to not help the ALF with the rogue robots running around helped lead to the Outback becoming a place straight out of a Mad Max film.”

“No, no they do not, but we need to be careful, as we have revealed that we believe that we have Cheshire’s daughter in our custody.” Ana reminded him, “They could claim we’re assuming all Junkers are like Molly. Junkrat and Roadhog have confirmed that there are plenty of truly monsterous people in Junkertown and they don’t have the best reputation themselves in the world community.”

“So? Every community has it’s scum bags.” Jack said flatly.

“Australia has had over twenty years to paint Junkers as the ultimate monsters. Junkrat and Roadhog’s ‘world tour’ as they’ve been calling it, hasn’t helped much. Even with Cheshire’s good deeds in Sydney, there are still plenty of people in the world who have enough power to make her viewed as a murderous demon for her crimes against people they cared about.” Ana pointed out.

“But Molly’s time with Hana has changed that a bit, hasn’t it?” Angela asked, “They’ve had a few streaming sessions where a few people have gotten nasty with her and she’s explained the circumstances Junkers face and why they have to do certain things...”

“You assume those who accused her of things were listening to her,” Ana scoffed, “those kinds of people were either trying to discredit her or just wanted to throw stones at her or Junkers in general. But yes, her words have started to change some views about them, but again, she’s only started doing those streams recently, and even with Hana and Lúcio’s help, it’s only barely starting to make a difference. And since the Australian government finally sent a us a message to confirm that Molly _is_ Cheshire’s daughter, once it’s public, more people may try to use her to discredit Junkers.”

“_Once_ it’s public?” Jack growled, “We told them to keep that information secure!”

“Jack, please.” Ana sighed, looking just as thrilled at the idea of the government not keeping their mouths shut as he did, but looking defeated as she explained that, “Cheshire is one of the most wanted people in Australia. The information will get out eventually, whether the government does it themselves or not, someone will reveal the news about Molly being her child to the world and no doubt that people on the internet will come after her just for that.”

“I don’t think so.” Angela said, “I think it’s reasonable for a mother or any person with protective instincts to try or at least want to harm someone for abusing children. Sometimes, they actually may do something violent, but it is uncommon…”

“Cheshire wouldn’t hesitate to become violent.” Jack continued, a smile growing on his face, “And with it being known that Molly is her daughter, then she becomes a Junker mother who doesn’t want to see other children getting hurt and only knows how to fend off abuse with violence.”

“Making her more human, or at least more relatable to the public.” Ana agreed, a grin crawling up her cheeks before she paused, then looked at her, “Angela, does Molly know about Cheshire’s blood bath back in Sydney?”

The kettle began to sing and Angela busied her hands with pulling it off the heat and grabbing three mugs from a cubbard, “Roadhog and I talked to Cheshire about how we should go about talking to her about that, she explained her reasoning for those, most of them were basically maternal instincts and her protective nature.”

“Protective, that’s what she’s going with?” Jack asked. Ana smacked his arm and scolded him in Arabic before Angela continued,“She mentioned an interesting thing about what happened while she was committing those crimes…”

The two elders of Overwatch rose their eyebrows and silently motioned to her to go on, their eyes eager.

“Apparently, after a while, whenever she was believed to be involved in some violent crime, the police began digging into that person’s life and found that they were either abusive in some way or were involved with human trafficking.” She revealed as she began pouring the hot water into the cups, Ana getting up to grab her tea from the cabinet, “Sombra did some digging and found out that after she attacked relatives of Hyde executives, they found out some not so pleasant facts about those people. So if Hyde kicked up too much of a fuss about the police digging into their family’s lives…”

“They’d start digging into theirs.” Jack finished, “And if they dug deep enough, they’d learn about _where _Molly and her siblings were born. And what they did to Cheshire to have her attack their families in the first place.”

“An eye for an eye.” Ana said with an understanding nod, “They took away what she thought would be her last chance to have a family again, so she took members of their families. Considering she hasn’t cut them open and left the higher ups to die in the middle of the radiated Outback, she’s still being far kinder to them than they were to her.”

Angela began passing out the cups and she and Ana sat down.

“And now that she knows that not only did they make her a child, but have been keeping her from her and have been doing who knows what with her…” Ana shook her head, “All bets are off if she ever meets one of those higher ups in person.”

“She gave us a few ideas.” Angela with a nervous laugh, “Roadhog managed to convince her to use any higher up she finds as a mole to find the other kids. He had to remind her that she’s not the only woman Hyde robbed.”

“All things considering, it’s possible they ‘robbed’ more than a hundred.” Jack mused, “Some just might not have been up to Moira’s standards.”

Ana and Angela both let out snorts of disgust in unison before both of them took sips of their tea. Then Ana decided to change the subject, “So what woke you two up?”

“I couldn’t sleep. I was worried about what Molly’s surprise would be.” Morrison answered, “I know it’s food related since she had Junkrat and Genji guard the kitchen door today, but she’s eight and she was in the kitchen with only Hana to watch her.”

“So?” Ana asked.

“I heard her calling out for Molly to ‘put the really big knife down!’” He explained, “I was worried that Junkrat, Genji and I would run into a blood bath in there if she didn’t start yelling about how a smaller knife would be better and how she needed to make her hand like a cat’s paw and stop using her powers for that. Junkrat had me leave because he said that he was afraid that if I stuck around, I’d have a heart attack.”

“Well, considering that Athena would’ve let me know if she, or you, got hurt, I’d say there isn’t anything to worry about.” Angela said, although she narrowed her eyes up at the ceiling, silently wondering if there was a small cut that she was kept in the dark about.

“Correct, Agent Mercy, there were no injuries, Agent Junkrat informed me that if Cheshire saw a single, tiny scratch on Molly, a violent rampage would ensue, so I needed to keep you informed of any wounds that occured.” Athena confirmed quickly.

“Smart boy.” Ana purred before turning to her, “And what about you Angela? What woke you?”

“… I…I had a dream about the night of the fire at the Swiss base.” She said softly into her mug before forcing herself to take a sip, hoping it would dowse the memories of flames that popped up back into her head.

Her face immediately fell into a horrified expression before shifting into her comforting mother mode, “Do you want to talk about it?”

“I’d rather that night forever be wiped from my mind.” She said honestly, then looked to them, both of their faces etched in concern.

“When… when did you two learn about Gabriel?” she asked quietly.

“… I found out in Cairo.” Ana answered, “I was tracking a man named Abdul Hakim, he ran a criminal organization that strangled the city. The police and government were either turning a blind eye or on the take, food wasn’t properly passed along to people who needed them and medical care was impossible to get. All because of him.” She shook her head, “It turns out Jack and Gabe were also keeping an eye on him and the three of us ended up in a fight. I took Jack’s side and unmasked him. That’s when I learned that he was still alive.” She took a sip and looked at Jack, “I think you had some idea about his new identity before hand.”

“I had a hunch.” He said, “No proof, but Reaper was bitter and old Overwatch agents were being killed off one by one. Same gun that he used to use, left behind at the scene… When you took the mask off, I learned that my hunch was right.”

Angela sat there, stunned. Gabe had been the one who… she… she had heard they believed Reaper had done it, but… She never thought he’d actually... they were his friends and allies!

She felt hot tears stream down her cheeks. If she had just told the truth sooner…

“Angela?” Ana called, grabbing at her hands, worried.

All those people… If she had just told the UN, told anyone!

She suddenly found it hard to breathe and started gasping for breath.

“Angela!” Ana cried before instructing her to take deep breaths, which she obeyed, her mind reeling.

She _had_ to tell them. They needed to know. Everyone needed to know!

“I… I knew.” she stammered, tears starting to burn her eyes, “I-I found him… in the fire. I-I tried to save him but…” She covered her face with her hands, “He… he started turning into smoke the moment I used my nano on him… I-I don’t… I don’t know why… or _how_…” she wiped at her face, struggling to keep herself somewhat calm. It wouldn’t do anyone any good if she completely broke down into a sobbing mess.

The two elders looked at one another, seeming to speak without words before Ana broke the silence.

“Hmm… Jesse and Genji’s theory of Moira messing with his DNA could explain that.” she said before looking to Jack, “You were with him longer than the rest of us and a part of that program as well…”

“Program?” Angela repeated, “You mean the soldier enhancement project?” Hoping that he had some more information on it.

“Of course, where do you think I got ‘Soldier 76’ from?” he asked.

“The year of America’s declaration of independence from Britian.” Angela replied without skipping a beat.

“Seriously?” He replied, “You think I’m one of those men who are all about ‘Mericuh’? Why would you two even think that?!”

The two women gave him flat looks before pointing to his American flag pajamas.

“Don’t use my pajamas against me.” He ordered, his eyes narrowed and his lips pulled into a pout.

“Jack, what do you remember about what happened in that program?” Ana asked, giving him her ‘Mama Bear is running out of patience’ look.

“… They never told us much.” He finally sighed, “But they did warn us that there could be complications later on in life…” He paused, pensive as he sorted through years and years of memories to try to recall exactly what was said. “Something about possible accelerated cell death later on in life…”

“WAS?!” Angela cried, horrified, “And you never thought to tell any of the medical staff?!”

“I told the head of the medical department to keep an eye out for it for any members of Overwatch who came from that program. And he did. I wasn’t in charge back then, but I told him because I was worried. The people back then said that it was a very low risk, but still, I wanted him to know… When he retired and his replacement came in, I told her too. I was in charge then, so she made sure to listen, but she still couldn’t tell me about any patient’s files.” He leaned over his cooling tea, “But if Gabe had that and Moira was helping him with that and then you tried using your nano…”

“I… I was making his cells go back to the way they were before Moira helped him?” She asked, breathless and horrified.

“I don’t know.” He said, “The only ones who probably know are Moira and Molly.”

Ana’s eyes widened, “So if Molly said that she didn’t learn how Gabriel became Reaper from Reaper, does that mean she learned it from Moira?”

“It’s possible. She’s probably treated him since that night, so she probably has a good idea of why that happened.” He mused, “And she was reading minds more when she met Moira in person…”

“Mein Gott…” Angela murmured.

The answer had been so obvious now that she thought about it. Why Molly said didn’t know how Reaper got his ability from _him_.

_It was because she got it from Moira._

And the reason why she didn’t tell Winston any more about it?

Probably because she didn’t understand all that much herself. She doubted Moira’s mind had a children’s only section. Hell, the woman’s mind was probably only filled with hard core science and cruelty. Not to mention the fact that Molly’s knowledge in science was limited to what she’d learned in a few short months, and while her ability to grasp nearly everything they’d taught her so quickly was amazing, there was only so much an eight year old could comprehend, especially one who couldn’t talk, read or write a few months ago.

It was most likely that Molly had the information, but she didn’t understand it.

That certainly made her feel a bit better knowing that Molly hadn’t kept quiet for her sake (although if she did understand it, she probably would). And it didn’t hurt to get that bit about what happened that night during the fire off her chest either.

“I don’t think what she may have picked up from Moira’s mind was truly that bad…” Ana said hurriedly, “Or else she would have told us…”

“Before the whole base knew about her abilities?” Jack asked.

“I certainly think if it was that bad, she would have told us out of fear or a desire to understand any of the new information… or she probably would have told Roadhog or Junkrat about it if it bothered her…” she paused, then looked up at the ceiling, “Athena, would you relay the information we gained tonight from Angela to Winston tomorrow morning and have Roadhog come in for a meeting to see if Molly talked to him about anything she may have picked up from Moira?”

“Winston has a meeting after breakfast with the Australian UN member.” Athena informed them, you can discuss it with him afterwards.

“Ah, Jack and I should probably sit in on the chat with the Australian UN as well, after all, we want to make sure certain mistakes are not repeated.” Ana said, malice and eagerness practically dripping from her lips as she spoke.

“And we should probably discuss the uproar that Cheshire’s daughter is Hana’s little game buddy will bring to the Australian public too.” Jack agreed, his smile and tone soaked with impish glee.

Angela almost wished she could be there and have Hana go in her stead, but alas, she already gave Cheshire her word she’d meet up with her and Hana was taking Winston, Reinhardt and Mako out for a day of clothes shopping. So she’d have to make due with asking Genji to spy on the meetings and to give her the details later. Or maybe just ask him to film the whole thing as Athena probably would not be allowed to simply show her a meeting between Winston and a UN rep. Knowing Genji, he’d be happy to get every last juicy detail for her either way. (It was so nice to have ninja friends!)

Angela suddenly surprised herself with a yawn, her body feeling heavier and her eyelids starting to droop.

“I think I’ll head back to bed, I wouldn’t want to be falling asleep on the job tomorrow.” She managed through another yawn as she got up with her teacup in hand, ready to put it into the sink and head to bed. Ana placed a hand over hers, “I’ve got it, you go on to bed.”

“Danke.” She said as she heaved her tired body up from the table and left the kitchen with a wave and a heart relieved of a heavy burden.

Angela had a good feeling she could sleep easy for an hour or two before she had to get up for the day now.


	58. Chock full of good ideas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rat finds out that Korpal is on the island and needs to find a way to get him off the island before Cheshire finds out and has to help Molly combat her worries that her Mummy might not like her.  
Why the fuck wasn't Hog going again?

Junkrat smiled proudly at his mismatched buttons, a giddy giggle escaping his lips as he pulled up his boot, and looked at the outfit he’d gotten with Satya and Pipsqueak earlier in the week and smirking.

Mismatched buttons aside, he really did look good in this outfit.

He stuffed his wallet into his back pocket before hopping out of the shower room and bouncing towards his girlfriend’s room, tote in hand (so he could pick it up later when he got back to spend some extra time with her).

Satya had told him at breakfast that she’d be ‘inspecting his attire’ after he ate and showered and to go to her room after he was all clean so she could make sure he was presentable. She also whispered for him to put on underwear for today, which he hadn’t really looked forward to, but did it anyways…(Even though the damn thing felt tight against his tackle…)

Before he’d headed to his room to gather his shower stuff and new clothes, she told him that she’d be happy to help him with his hair too.

Which if anyone else outside of Overwatch had said to him, he’d roast them alive for the comment, but since it was her, he knew she meant it out of love.

But still…

He then frowned a bit and threaded his flesh hand through his hair as he headed towards the dorms. Where the bald patches he’d gained via seriously bad radiation poisoning was some nice, soft, downy-like growth, which was great all things considered, but still, he was still bit sensitive about it.

People assumed he was much older than he actually was (which was 25, according to Angel Wings, he figured he was somewhere around there but hadn’t been sure until recently) and he’d honestly panicked when he’d first scratched his head and strands of singed blonde hair slid out of his scalp and into his hand. After hiring Hog and having another freak out about more hair falling out, his new partner in crime told him it was because he’d fucked around in one of the worse places to go and that if they got out the hell out of dodge and he took his medicine, he’d get better.

He’d been right, the old bastard, but still, they’d been out of Oz for a few years now and only recently had it started growing back.

Then again, he’d been in a radiated environment for almost all of his life, it was natural that it would take a long time for him to recover from really bad radiation poisoning when he was absorbing so much radiation on the reg… and you know, constantly being on fire might not have helped much… Although he wondered how the hell Roadhog had managed to have the long, thick locks he had despite the fire and chaos they brought with them for all that time they were out… and how he’d managed to keep them like that for so long before they’d teamed up out in the radiated wildlands around Junkertown.

Note to Rat from Rat: ask Snowball to help me figure out th’ secret ta Roadie’s hair. (Since th’ ape’s busy with all tha’ other shite.)

Note to Rat from Rat: Yeah, but how do we get any of it without carkin’ it? Doubt Roadie would loike it if I jus’ reached up ‘n helped meself.

Note to Rat from Rat: … Dunno, guess’ll tha’ one’ll hafta wait.

He stopped mid-step as Morrison rushed past him, his face pulled into a furious expression, “Oi!” He cried, a bit pissed that he just flew out in front of him without so much as a ‘watch your step, soldier!’

“Not now!” He snapped back, “We have a possible situation here!” He then stopped for a second by a corner, “AND FIX THOSE BUTTONS, SOLDIER!!” he shouted before turning around the corner.

He smirked at the order, “Aye, aye!” he giggled with a small salute as he continued on his way with bigger strides. After all, he didn’t want to get another ear-bashing.

Although, he did wonder what chucked his wobby... Especially enough to make him miss out on giving the Australian government hell this morning with Ana after he’d seemed so excited about it at breakfast. (Couldn’t blame him for that, he’d thoroughly enjoyed doing that back home as often as he could.)

He slowed his pace and tapped his metal finger on his freshly shaven chin, it had to be something big… Hmm… Pipsqueak left not long after breakfast to pick Lúcio up from the airport and she had mentioned something about him finding a new person who wanted to join…

Did 76’s morning run have something to do with it?

Hmm, probably. The old man used to run this place, no doubt he’d want a say in who joined and who didn’t, even though it wasn’t his call anymore.

He suddenly felt torn. While he wanted to be sure Pipsqueak and Lúcio were okay with this stranger, he also wanted to spend some time with his girlfriend this morning before he left to spend time with Cheshire and Sombra.

Friends or the most gorgeous sheila in the world…

Shite. Having good people around seriously put him on the spot in these kinds of situations…

But at the same time, it wasn’t as if old 76 couldn’t handle a fight. While it could be possible that there could be a hostage situation, he doubted they wouldn’t find a way to communicate with them about that. The day after Molly’s birthday, Pipsqueak had everyone sit in on a meeting where she went on and on about a code made out of the faces you could send to people on your phone she had decided on for them just in case they needed to send an emergency message to the others without it looking odd.

All she’d have to do is send Molly a reply of a certain smiley face and she’d report any possible dangers to the Ape and they’d prep for a rescue. And since he knew Molly had asked her to send a message to her as soon as Lúcio landed, Pipsqueak would have sent a distress signal if there was something wrong.

But still…

“’Thena, anyone else go to th’ garage after 76?”

“Yes, Agent Junkrat. Agent Wilhelm was also dispatched to the garage.”

Perfect!

Reinhardt was a powerful opponent with years of experience both in battle and getting along with people. It didn’t matter if he needed to aid his old mate in battle or smooth things over if the old soldier was a bit too much to the new guy, because with the jolly German giant around, it was all apples.

And now that he was thinking about it, it was possible that there wasn’t a new person even here yet, that they’d be coming later and Lúcio could simply be telling the ape about this new potential mate.

So he could enjoy feeling of his girlfriend’s fingers through his hair and hear her sing in that pretty language of hers again without having to worry about a thing!

With his mind made up and a smile on his face, he happily knocked on her door and was greeted with a wide smile and a slight shake of her head as she began realigning his buttons again.

“Perhaps I should get you clothing with zippers.” She joked.

“I’ll just foind somethin’ else, ‘m a crafty bloke.” He said with a smile and a waggle of his eyebrows. She laughed and finished with his last button before motioning for him to follow her into her room and, after a quick inspection of his clothing, she motioned for him to sit by the front of her bed. He happily sat down and she made a comb with a few flicks of her fingers and began to carefully comb his hair.

She threaded the blue comb through his hair with gentle motions, apologizing softly if she caught a knot in the comb as she would try to untangle it the best she could.

She was always so careful with his hair, as if she knew about his insecurities about it, even if he never really admitted that fact out loud. She started humming as she began combing it back, nice and neat, her fingers sliding into his locks behind the comb, gently scratching his scalp.

He leaned back with a smile and a relaxed sigh, he wished he could just stay like this all day, but he had to go to the meeting. After all, he knew more about both Cheshire and Sombra than Mercy and he knew how dangerous they could be when pissed. He could keep the mood light and he could get along with both of them and blend in better than Hog…

They both jumped when a shrill ring erupted from her phone and she dashed over and picked up the phone, “Symmetra.” She answered, her expression all business.

She listened for a moment, her face falling into shock, “You are here? Now?” she asked, surprised.

Rat got up and walked over so he’d be in front of her, being careful not to touch her and startle her further. She seemed to have noticed because she looked up at him the moment he was right in front of her.

He pointed to the phone.

She covered the phone with her hand and mouthed, “Sanjay.”

He frowned. That fucking cunt was here today? Right now? What did he want? He didn’t know that they were dating, did he? No… No, they’d been careful about that, they’d been seen out in public together, but they hadn’t been doing anything that would reveal their relationship. But there could always be a chance that just being seen with him would cause that bastard to take her away…

But Sombra wouldn’t rat him out, she was on his side, as far as he could tell. Plus, Cheshire knew about-

Then it hit him.

_Cheshire knew about Korpal hitting Molly and hurting her_.

** _And they were both on the island at the same time…_ **

“Sa-’Metra, we moight have a problem.” He whispered, she gave him a confused look before he decided it would be best if the drongo heard it from him and tapped the speaker button, “G’day mate.”

“You… What… Vaswani!” the suit sputtered, “Why is this _Junker_ on the phone?”

“’Cause I put it on speaker.” He said plainly, “Keep up mate. Anyways, wanted ta warn ya ‘bout Molly’s Mum bein’ in town today…”

“Her mother?” He repeated, his tone filled with suspicion, “I thought she was still in Junkertown…”

“She was… fer a bit. She got a gig not too long ago ‘n got out of Oz.” He said offhandedly, “But tha’s not important, what’s important is tha’ Cheshire knows what happened at Nan’s party ‘n she ain’ gonna be noice if she sees ya.”

There was a moment of silence before he stammered, “H-her mother is _Cheshire_?”

“Guess ya know ‘er reputation?” He guessed, trying not to smile at his reaction. While Rat was admittedly kinda scared of Cheshire too, she had no reason to want to hurt him. That incident at Hog’s aside, she told him as much and apologized (he still was a bit scared of her, but he accepted it in fear of death back then). And even if she was pissed at him, compared to the bastard who hurt her daughter and made her cry…

Yeah, he had no worries about _his _safety.

“I knew some of the people she killed…” He managed, sounding shaken.

“So ya know what she’s capable of?” He guessed.

“To say the least…” He said grimly.

“Look, I dunno what yer ‘ere for, but I think it’s in yer best interest ta take th’ next floight outta dodge.” Junkrat said plainly.

“I was going to discuss her coming to a party hosted by Madame Rouge next week back in Utopia to discuss business…” the suit said. Satya stiffening a bit at the mention of a party, her expression a bit uncomfortable and Rat had a good feeling as to why.

She’d told him all about how those kinds of parties could be.

While the food and drinks were always quite good and she liked getting all dolled up, they could be quite stressful at times…

Which if he had to guess, would probably be from being surrounded by suits and snobs and have to listen to their boring shit for Christ knows how long in a crowded, noisy ballroom. And she probably wasn’t allowed to step away to decompress or anything if it got too much for her either. Then there would be dances with annoying bastards who probably droned on and on until the wee hours of the morning.

She’d told him about some of the more interesting parties that had entertainment and games for the guests to play that sounded far more pleasant, but judging by her reaction this ‘Madame Rogue’ or whatever was not a fun loving sheila.

“The Madame could make things difficult for us if Vaswani does not attend.” The suit informed them, probably just to make her feel guilty and attend and then, most likely, the suit would see to it that she’d never return back here.

And the fuck Rat was going to let that shite happen.

“Then tell ‘er tha’ ’Metra’s not feelin’ well ‘n th’ Doc said she was not fit ta fly at all fer th’ next week or so.” He offered, “’N ya didn’ want ta foight ‘er on it fer ‘Metra’s sake.”

It was silent for a moment, then they heard a sigh from the other side of the call, “… I suppose I can tell that to the Madame. I can’t say she will be very pleased, as she is quite fond of you, Vaswani, but I doubt she will push the issue farther if you’re unable to attend due to health reasons.” He relented.

“Good, now tha’ we got tha’ settled, get th’ first floight out. _Now_.” He ordered, annoyed that this drongo couldn’t listen to him the first time when he said ‘get th’ fuck out ‘fore Cheshire kills ya’ and even had the nerve to try to guilt trip her into a trap!

“Alright, let me just get to the airport’s website… Ugh, this hotel’s wifi is awful!”

“Hotel?” Satya piped in, her tone a bit confused, “You’re not at the airport?”

“What- I mean, of course I am! I-I’m in the airport hotel, I was just checking in!” he blurted, seemingly a bit panicked to be caught in a lie. Rat smirked at the phone a bit.

Note to Rat from Rat: _Oooh!_ Someone’s in trouble ‘n fer once it ain’ me!

“Sir, you can’t check in until after noon.” A voice in the background said. They heard the suit hiss at the unknown voice before he sighed and said, “Fine, I got here last night. You caught me. I apologise. I just wanted to take in the island a bit on my own. Enjoy the sights!”

Enjoy the sights? More like kidnap his girlfriend so he’d never see her again and possibly brainwash her into the next Widowmaker!

Junkrat barely managed to restrain himself from breaking Satya’s phone in rage, but still growled out a, “Mate, if you don’t get out of there roight now ‘n onta a fuckin’ plane, th’ only soight yer sorry arse is gonna see is Cheshire slicin’ ya inta bits.”

And then he’d see the entrance to the worst pit in hell and get kicked in, but he held his tongue. Maybe he believed something different would happen, like that he’d turn into some sort of disgusting pest and be killed in some horrible way. Who could say for certain what happened after death?

He certainly worked hard to make sure that, for him and the people he worked with and cared about, that mystery stayed unsolved.

“Alright alright, just let me check out and I’ll…” there was a thump and a sharp, “Could you please watch where you’re-“ And then he stopped talking and there was a crack and a thud before they could only hear a few people calling out in muffled, but concerned voices.

“Sanjay?” Satya called, “Sanjay! SANJAY!”

“Symmetra?” a familiar voice asked.

“Yes, who-“

“It’s Sombra.” The hacker replied quietly, “What’s with your boss? As soon as he saw us he kinda dropped his phone and ran away. … he kinda left his stuff…” There was a pause and muffled voices before she informed them that, “And he didn’t pay his bill yet.”

“He probably used his company credit card, so it will be on Vishkar’s dime.” She informed her.

“Fine with me, I wasn’t going to pay it. Anyways, I should go, Cheshire looks ready to kill him for bumping into me and I don’t think I could stop her right now. Although maybe I can convince her to burn his stuff instead, but I don’t think you’d like that plan…”

“No, I’d rather you bring his things to the meeting and have the others bring it here so I can send it to his office.” Satya confirmed, “And that your bodyguard _not_ kill my superior.”

Rat bit back a snort, as if that fucking suit was superior to his girlfriend. He bet she could take him down in every way imaginable… well, except in being a shite person. He could have that title.

“Well, she’s already halfway to the door after him, so if you have any other ideas, on how to stop her from killing him, I’m all ears, chica!” she said as she began to run, the sounds of her shoes clicking against what he’d guessed was tile.

“Hang on a tick, think I can fix tha’.” He said loudly into the phone so she could hear, his mind reeling. As much as he’d love it if Cheshire killed that shitty suit, he knew there would probably be consequences for it, and while it wouldn’t be the ‘girlfriend upset that he killed someone she knew and maybe cared about’. He would wager a guess that Vishkar would probably force Satya to go back with them and he’d never see her again.

Not to mention Molly’s mum not being able to come around again if she did that in public and in broad daylight So, even though he didn’t like what he was about to do, he knew exactly how to stop her from killing him in the middle of the street.

“How?” she blurted as they heard a door open.

“Pass th’ phone ta Ches, say there’s someone special on th’ phone fer ‘er!” He said, giving his girlfriend’s hand one more squeeze before letting go, slipping her phone back into her hand and strolled out of her room only to knock on the door of the room next to hers, Sombra’s calls to her bodyguard muffled from what he’d guess was her running.

“Oi Molls! Yer Mum’s on th’ phone!” he called.

The door immediately opened and Molly stood in the doorway with wide eyes on, her cowlicks were a bit wavy on her head with nerves.

She wore a dark blue dress with slices of oranges, lemons and limes on it, her bangs were pulled back into a little braid on her head with little blue thongs on her feet and her bracelet. Bob poked his head out too, wearing a bandana that matched Molly’s dress over his collar, his leash attached to it for once and seeming interested in what was going on. Mercy poked her head out too, seeming to be a bit confused at this information.

“Don’ you look noice?” He asked, a smile perking up the corners of her mouth and her cowlicks slowing curling back to their normal place on her head, “Ta.” She said shyily.

“Come on, ‘Metra got yer Mum’s boss on th’ phone to make sure we all know the roight place ta meet up ‘n she said yer Mum wanted ta say ‘G’day’.” He explained, motioning for her to follow, which she did, with Bob bounding behind her as he knocked on Satya’s door.

She opened the door with a look of concern only for it to melt at the sight of the child. “Molly is here.” She said into her phone before handing it to Molly as Mercy poked her head out into the hallway.

“Mummy?” she called softly, as if afraid her mother wouldn’t be the one on the other end of the phone.

“…G’day luv.” Cheshire cooed softly. Rat jerked his head back at the tone, he’d never heard Cheshire sound like that before. Was this how she spoke to children, all nice and soft like? Or was this a tone reserved just for Molly?

“Mummy!” Molly cheered, bouncing on her toes, “You ‘member where we’re meetin’, roight?”

“Course! It’s called th’ Fish Bowl café, roight?”

“Yeah! It’s got a pretty bowl filled with a big colorful fishie on th’ soign!” Molly confirmed, “’N there are loittle fishies on th’ windows too! ‘N their loights look loike their soign!”

“That sounds like a lovely place to meet up, luv!” Cheshire said, “’N it sounds loike it’ll be easy ta foind!”

“Yeah! They let pets in too so you can meet Bob!” Molly told her.

“Is ‘e there now?” Cheshire asked, her voice overflowing with warmth that seemed to trigger something in his mind; a flash of a woman’s face.

Her warm eyes the same color as his own, her blonde hair shorter in the back than the front but it was still long enough to reach her shoulders. She was wore a red blouse and a pair of tan shorts under a white lab coat.

“I’m home!” she called with a laugh. Her tone much like Cheshire’s, but the voice was different. Her eyes seemed to scan the area around her before she locked her eyes at him and smiled broadly as she knelt down and held out her arms, “There’s my loittle foirecracker!”

Wait, ‘little firecracker’? Did his mother call him that? The words had made him feel warm and happy, so maybe? He had no idea… He wished he could remember. Everyone else here could remember their family’s faces or had a picture or two with their families or old friends somewhere, and it always stung a little when he’d see those happy pictures… their real, biological families (or, in the ape’s case, a mentor), and knowing that he couldn’t even remember his parents’ faces or voices very well. Hell, he didn’t know their first names or what they did for a living or had any memories of them that weren’t fragmented or warped…

Until now, anyway.

The sound of Cheshire cooing at Bob over the phone snapped him out of his thoughts and then made him snicker as the pup’s tail wagged so fast his rump seemed to wiggle with it before he began licking the phone and Molly giggled, “He’s trying ta give ya’ kisses through th’ phone, Mummy!”

He then heard Cheshire laughing before it was interrupted by Sombra’s voice calling for her in the background and Cheshire called back, “Roight, be there in a tick!” before she whispered a “Hoo roo luv, see you soon!”

“Hoo roo Mummy!” Molly replied cheerfully before she hung up the phone and handed it back to Satya, “’Ere ya go ‘Metra.” She then paused then said, “Oh, wait, it’s sticky with Bob kisses…” she then paused, then wiped it on her dress for a moment then happily held it up for her, “There, it’s apples now!”

Satya took her phone with a finger and a thumb and struggled to keep her composure, “Thank you.” She managed without stammering or fainting.

Thankfully and, well, mercifully, Merc decided to step in and reminded Molly about some bags she needed to get before they left.

“Oh roight! I nearly forgot!” She cried before she dashed into her room, Bob right behind her.

Old Angel Wings then quickly pulled a handkerchief out of her pocket and he slipped the phone from her fingers and asked, in a hushed tone, “Yer case is water proof, roight?”

“I-I made it from hard light, so yes.” She replied, shaking a bit.

The good doctor wiped at her hands, “Wash your hands and then wash your phone.” She ordered before she began ushering them back into Satya’s room with a few waves of her hands and hisses of “Go! Go!”

Satya sprinted into her half bath and washed her hands in a way that he’d almost describe as ‘fierce’ before he grabbed her wrist with his flesh hand and said, “Yer good, luv.” He assured her before holding up her phone with his metal hand, “This moight need a washin’ more than you do.”

She seemed to relax a bit in his grip before he finally let go after a few moments of her calming down before she carefully took her phone from him and washed it. Once she was done, she took a hand towel and began dabbing at the wet screen, eyeing him in the mirror, concerned, “You seemed to space out there for a moment, are you feeling alright?”

“Yeah, jus’…” he rubbed the back of his neck, feeling a bit awkward, “I-I think I ‘membered me Mum fer a tick.” He admitted.

Her eyes widened, although if it was because he didn’t think he’d ever mentioned his parents to her or that the news of him remembering one of his parents all of a sudden was suprising, she didn’t let on as she said, “Oh? What exactly did you remember?”

“’Er callin’ me ‘er little foirecracker fer one.” He said, making her chuckle, “’N I actually managed ta remember ‘er face this toime.”

“You forgot what she looked like?” She asked, shock slipping into her tone.

“Every other toime I tried ta ‘member ‘er or dreamed ‘bout ‘er, ‘er face was a blur. Same with me Da’. Their voices were usually warped or I’d see mouths movin’, but not hear nothin’. But hearin’ Cheshire talk ta Molls loike tha’…” He gave her a small smile and he felt his eyes burn as he told her, “I remembered me Mum clearly fer th’ first toime in years…”

She put her phone down and took his hands in hers, “Jamie, do you remember anything else about your parents? Their names or occupations?”

“Nah.” He said with a shake of his head. After he was arrested, the coppers and guards kept calling him by his real name.

Naturally he didn’t take that well and after a few beat downs by both him and Hog, he demanded to know where they learned their real names. The warden told him that they had birth certificates and after they had DNA samples from them, it was easy to match them to those.

Rat had nearly asked them if they could tell him his birthday and his parents’ names, but he’d been electrocuted by a stun gun before he could ask and was dragged into a cell. Apparently they’d used his limp body to threaten Hog into getting locked up quietly… fucking bastards.

He briefly wondered if he could ask Mercy. She had access to his medical files and had managed to tell him how old he was recently. Maybe she could tell him his birthday and his parents’ names when they got back…

He felt his phone vibrate and saw a text from Mercy, ‘We need to leave soon or we’ll be late!’

Damn! Oh well, he could always ask her later.

“Is it that time already?” Satya asked, glancing at her wet phone and checking the time.

“Yeah, don’ want ta feel Cheshire’s wrath if we’re late. Plus if we both get there early, I can stow th’ suit’s stuff in th’ car roight away so she ain’ tempted ta try nothin’.” He said.

Although he had a feeling that the two they were meeting would have gone through everything on his phone and everything in his suitcase before they even got to the meeting and probably put some sort of digital tracer on everything electronic.

If it was him with the chance to go through the wanker’s shite, he would’ve just taken any tech or valuables and burned the rest, maybe used his phone to buy snacks for Molly and her mother to enjoy as a bit of payback for before, but that was his and many other Junkers’ ways. Sombra’s methods were more about gathering information and using it against people. Every little thing helped with that apparently, so he was looking forward to hearing about all the dirty little secrets Sombra could dig out as leverage against the suit.

Who knew, maybe he could convince her to help get Satya out of her shitty contract while still keeping her arm and hard light via black mailing the shitty suit. It would be a long shot, but he was confident… and ya know, he might have been testing some new explosives to see if they could break through hard light, just in case he needed to convince them Junker style.

He was snapped out of his thoughts as Satya let go of his hands to start adjusting and smoothing out the collar of his shirt, “I’d appreciate that, Jamie, thank you. I know Sanjay hasn’t been his usual polite self as of late, but I am glad you are being the bigger person by helping him.”

Rat bit the inside of his mouth to keep from saying, “’M doin’ this fer you, not tha’ toxic fuckwit.” And instead simply nodded and gave her a smile as she double checked his buttons and gave his hair one last few flicks of her fingers before she seemed satisfied.

“Good, now, it’s best you get to the garage so you’re not late.” She said, “I have some work I’ll need to start, so I unfortunately can’t walk with you to the garage.

“Tell ya ‘bout it later?” He asked.

“I look forward to it.” She said before giving him a kiss on the cheek, “I expect you’ll be on your best behaviour?”

“Cross me lung!” he laughed, drawing an X over his chest before giving her one last peck on the forehead before walking out of her room. Molly and Mercy were in the hallway, Molly holding Bob’s leash and Mercy holding two white gift bags that Molly had obviously hand decorated with markers and stickers.

“Ready?” He asked, his tone teasing. Molly nodded vigorously and Bob gave a bark in affirmation as Mercy chuckled and patted at the purse hanging off her shoulder, “I have my keys, we’ll head down in my van.”

“Don’t think I’ve had a ride with you lately.” Rat recalled.

“No, you often sacrifice yourself to go in Hana’s car.” She recalled as she lead the way to the garage, “Or you get rides from Roadhog.”

“So, remoind me, what koinda driver are you?” He asked.

“A legal one.” She replied.

“Tha’s borin’.” He complained with a teasing smile.

“Perhaps, but we need to keep a low profile and driving safely like everyone else is the best way to go.” She told him, “It’s not like it will kill you.”

“Only if I cark it from boredom.” He pouted playfully.

She shook her head and led them to the garage, only to find it empty except for Hog, who was hunched over, huffing and puffing, and Bastion, who was tending to his bird.

“Daddy!” Molly cried as she dashed over to him, Bob right behind her.

“Thank Christ…” He rumbled as he scooped them both up, getting Bob kisses all over the bottom of his mask, “Was worried… I got ‘ere… too late.. ta send ya… off…”

“Mako-“ Mercy began, most likely to bug him about his lungs again when it was far more likely that Hog had probably just run across the base to say good bye to his little shield. So, Rat put himself between his best mate and Merc and gave his buddy a thumbs up.

“Nah, roight on toime, mate.” Rat assured him, smiling as his mate happily bounced his little ones into the air on his palms for a moment before bringing them close to his face.

“Now Molly, I want you to be-“

“Don’ worry, Da’!” she said, cutting him off with her chest puffed up with pride that she knew what he was going to say without reading his mind, “I’ll be a good girl fer Mummy ‘n ‘er mate!”

“I wasn’ going to say tha’.” He told her.

Her cowlicks drooped a bit, then perked back up as she declared that, “Alroight, then I’ll be a GREAT girl!” while throwing her arms out, as if to show just how much better of a girl she’d be with her arms.

“Wasn’ gonna say tha’ either.” He said.

Molly’s cowlicks were limp on her head as she turned to Rat for help. Rat could only shrug with an apologetic expression, he was just as lost as she was on what the big guy was thinking. She looked to Mercy, who shook her head, and then to Bob, who shook his head. And THEN to his shock and horror, BASTION. The bot tilting it’s head as if confused before she looked back to Hog.

“Best girl?” Molly tried softly.

Hog shook his head before gently poking her in the chest with a massive finger, “Be yerself.” He told her, “Tha’s what’ll make yer Mum th’ happiest.”

Molly gave him a watery smile and a hug, her cowlicks curling into their usual heart shape, “Thank you Daddy.” She murmured into his neck.

He chuckled and gave her and Bob pecks on the tops of their heads, “Would ‘preicate it if you made sure Rat was on ‘is best behaviour though...”

“Oi!” He cried, making them both laugh as Bob gave him an apologetic look.

“Agent Roadhog, Winston would like a word with you.”

“Looks loike yer th’ one who needs ta be good!” Rat teased.

Hog gave him the finger before putting his daughter and her puppy down and gave them all a wave before walking out the door.

“We should get going.” Mercy said as she walked over towards the bot and picked up the Satya had made and began putting it into Mercy’s van before quickly strapping Molly in and putting Bob in the seat beside her with the two gift bags. Then Rat strapped himself in and silently prayed as the good doctor hopped into the driver’s seat and wondered just how much this safe driving would suck.

Answer: So. Fucking. Much.

Safe driving was so BORING!

They didn’t go at super fast speeds, no fast slams on the brakes, no fast turns that lifted them up onto two wheels (both in a car or on Hog’s bike with the side car), no launching off of ramps, no hydroplaning, no need to toss explosives behind the car… granted the last three weren’t things he’d done with Pipsqueak driving, but still, the high speeds and fast turns had been fun when he wasn’t keeping others from getting hurt.

And she stopped at the yellow lights if she was too close to the intersection! WHO FUCKING DID THAT?! They could have made it to the otherside if she’d hit the gas harder!!!

Ugh, Note to Rat from Rat: Have Roadie give her some real driving lessons ‘fore I hafta get inta a car with ‘er drivin’ again…

It felt like an eternity until they saw the sign… but they had to pass it on the street to find a parking spot. So it felt even longer.

Rat nearly kissed the fucking solid ground when they got out. Final-fucking-ly, freedom from the most boring ride on earth!

But he was good. He didn’t do it, even though he was sure Molly and Bob would understand, even if Molly didn’t seem all that bothered by it. Bob actually seemed grateful for the calm ride, but then again, if his face was as floppy as Bob’s, he’d probably appreciate not having to have parts of it flying all over the place too. So his delight was understandable.

They walked towards the café, Molly struggling to hold the gift bags high enough so they wouldn’t drag on the ground while holding Bob’s leash at the same time.

“I can do it!” she insisted when Mercy asked her if she wanted her to take the bags for her, her cowlicks pointed to the ground as if ready to drill into it, “’M eight years old ‘n ‘m a Junker, I can do anythin’ ‘n everythin’!”

“Yes, but it will be hard to give your mother a hug if you have too much in your hands.” She countered.

Molly paused with a pout as she considered her point, glancing from her pup, to the bags, to her pup again. After a moment of consideration, she sighed and relented to Mercy’s offer to carry the bags, “But ‘m givin’ ‘um!” she cried.

“Of course!” she agreed, “You did make these presents for them, it’s only right that you get to give them to them!”

Molly nodded vigorously before passing her the bags before they continued on their way.

“You made them presents?” He asked. When she’d started to be more defensive of what she was making in the workshop after her playdate and his shopping trip, he’d figured she was probably making something for her Mum, but that she made something for Sombra too was surprising.

“Yup!” She said proudly, “I made them all by meself!”

“So whatcha make ‘um?” He asked.

“No spoilers.” She replied.

“Th’ f-heck is a spoiler?” He asked, deciding it was best if he held back on the swearing in front of Molly while Cheshire was around. Not that he swore in front of her on the reg, but still, it was better to be safe than skewered.

“It’s information that can wreck a fun toime.” She informed him.

“Loike knowin’ th’ coppers are on their way koinda wreckin’ fun or…?”

“Nah, more loike ruinin’ a good book or a fun show or video game.” She clarified.

“Ah, so no cops?”

“Unless you count th’ fun police.”

“Luv, tha’s all cops.” He said plainly.

“Oh roight, I forgot!” she said.

“Not all police are bad.” Mercy said firmly.

“Ta you, maybe.” He snorted, but said nothing more. He and Hog had already warned Molly of the dangers Junkers faced when dealing with coppers, they taught her several ways to avoid capture as well as the usual tactics cops used when pursuing someone they saw as dangerous (like them).

They also talked to her about how cops had treated them after they’d been captured and told her to always be careful when she spoke. They all thought Junkers were all stupid, crazy, psychopathic murders or all three, and letting them think you’re stupid, but not afraid to hurt someone if they cross you was to your advantage.

They kept their distance and they didn’t put too much into what you were doing if you had a reasonable excuse or just seemed confused or played dumb. He chuckled a bit as he recalled the bafflement of the cops after they broke out of prison. Those bastards probably thought he was too stupid to tie his shoes.

Well the joke was on them! He only needed one shoe and he knew how to tie it! Hell, it was his first more advanced task he learned how to do with his metal arm! (The next one was bomb making.)

“Over here!” Sombra called from under the sign, snapping him back to the present as she waved them over. She wore a purple blouse, glasses, those pants that go up so they cover your whole stomach, purpled heeled sandals and a beach bag over her shoulder. The suit’s luggage was white with a blue Vishkar logo and completely spotless, although he couldn’t say if it was like that before or after the two woman had poked through it, but at least from the outside it seemed as if it was fine...

If one didn’t look too closely at the locks on it to see the scratches a certain someone probably left when picking it.

Speaking of which, Cheshire didn’t seem to be around, but Rat had a pretty good feeling that she wasn’t too far.

As if on cue, he heard a bell ding and a door open before a familiar voice said, “They’re slammed, but since those Overwatch sheilas made reservations fer us ‘fore hand, they’ll let us know when they have a table free.” He then turned a bit to watch as Cheshire stepped out of the café and towards Sombra, wearing a sundress with the same pattern as Molly’s. Her wild, wavy hair was pulled back into a messy braid and she wore a simple pair of blue thongs on her feet and held a small black square in her hand out to her boss.

He glanced down at the little Junker and smirked at her wide, sparkling eyes at the knowledge that she and her mother were matching, her cowlicks pointing to her as if they were dowsing rods. Then, she seemed to curl up on herself, her cowlicks going wavy and flat on her head as she looked at her own shoes and moved her bracelet up and down with one hand and fiddled with Bob’s leash with the other.

What was that all about? If he didn’t know better he’d think…

Was… was she nervous about meeting her Mum?

He didn’t understand why she felt that way, but he was standing in for Roadie here, he was going to have to step up again. Or bend down, in his case, so she could hear him better;

“’Member what yer Dadhog said?” He whispered, “You bein’ you is what’ll make yer Mum happy, ya don’ need ta be nervous.”

“B-but what if she don’ loike me, Rat?” She asked softly.

“Oi, yer Da’ told ya in tha’ text message few days back didn’ ‘e?” He gently poked at her chest, “Yer Mum can’ get enough of ya!”

“… Really?” she asked softly.

“Yer Da’ wouldn’ tell ya a porky, would ‘e?” He asked her.

She looked him right in the eyes and shook her head, absolutely sure of her answer, “No, Da’ would nevah loie to me.”

“So,” he said, indicating her mother as she handed off the black square to Sombra, “Then don’ ya think ya should give yer Mum a proper greetin’?”

She seemed to consider this, then smiled and ran towards Cheshire, Bob right behind her as she called out, “MUUUMMMMMMMYYYYYYY!!!”

Cheshire turned to them, surprised at the sound and the sight of Molly running towards her, crying out, “MUMMYMUMMYMUMMYMUMMYMUMMY!!” But she quickly got down on her knees and held out her arms to catch them as they leapt towards her. “My baby!” she cried as she pulled them close and nuzzled them, Molly snuggled deeper into her mother’s arms and Bob’s tail wagged like crazy as he began covering Cheshire’s cheek in slobbery dog kisses, making her and Molly laugh.

“Tha’ remoinds me.” Cheshire said as Bob gave her one last lick, “I owe _somebody_ Mummy kisses, don’ I?”

Molly nodded eagerly and Cheshire began peppering her daughter and her puppy with kisses, Molly squealing with delight and Bob’s tail wagging faster than before as he barked happily at the adoration.

Rat couldn’t help the smile curling up his lips even if he wanted to, and Sombra seemed just as chipper as he was at the sight. He suddenly felt the urge to get his phone out of his pocket and take a picture, after all, Hog couldn’t be here to see this and it would be a shame if Dadhog didn’t get to enjoy this as well. But just as he was pulling his phone from his pocket, he caught sudden movement from the corner of his eye and found Mercy with her camera… upgraded with several pieces of fancy tech, hardlight and otherwise as she snapped pic after pic.

“Th’ f-hell Doc?” He managed.

“It’s their first official meeting.” She said, as if it were obvious, “Hana and Ana would never forgive me if the pictures weren’t perfect!”

“… Fair ‘nough.” He said, deciding that she had a point as he stuffed his phone back into his pocket. Pipsqueak and Nan could be scary as all hell when they wanted to be.

The small black square vibrated in Sombra’s hand and she smiled, “Looks like our table’s ready.” She then indicated the doorway, “Shall we?”

Mercy quickly took the lead and herded the three cuddling in the entryway inside while Rat excused himself to put the suit’s bag in the trunk.

“Oh,” she rummaged around in her purse for a moment before pulling out her keys, “Here, I know you can probably get into the trunk without them, but I prefer you use these.”

“Take all th’ fun out of it, why don’ cha?” He teased as he reached for them, only for Sombra to snag them first.

“I’ll help.” She said, the impish gleam in her eye telling him that she probably had some juicy information he’d love to hear.

“Ta.” He said as he picked up the bag, it was surprisingly light, “Huh, thought this would be heavier.” He said as he lifted it with ease.

“Guys like Sanjay go on business trips all the time and eventually master the art of packing light.” Sombra explained as she started walking in the direction his group had come from, Junkrat quickly catching up to her as she then purred, “But that just makes it easier for people like me to find what I need.”

“So you did foind somethin’ good on ‘im.”

“I got his log in and Vishkar credentials.” She said, obviously pleased with herself, “I also made a copy of his phone, so I can see everything on it.”

“You realize ‘e’ll prob’ly change phones after this, roight?” He pointed out, “Not only did you get yer paws on it, but ‘e dropped it ‘n it sounded loike it cracked when it did.”

“It did.” She confirmed, “But it’s a work phone, distributed by Vishkar, so he can’t change it out right away and he still has to do work on it. Plus I tapped into all his other devices AND I’ve already used his account to get in the door…”

“’N once yer in, yer in.” He said with a smile, “How are ya gonna get him?”

“Well, for starters, I’m ordering SO much porn to be delivered to his place and his office in Oasis Oasis.”

Rat let out a stream of giggles, “Noice.”

“Oh, it’s better than you think!” She said excitedly, “Porn is illegal in Iran, where Oasis is. So if his higher ups find out that their employee was caught trying to buy it and have it delivered to his home and his office through their systems, well…”

Junkrat happily imagined the shit storm that would follow and giggled excitedly as they made it to the van.

“Please tell me ya ain’ stoppin’ there?” he pleaded as she unlocked it and he loaded the suitcase into the van.

“Of course not.” She promised, “Besides digging up dirt on Vishkar, I plan to mess with his social media accounts, his personal planner, his music, his take out orders, his special tailoring orders, his dating profiles…” She listed easily off of her fingers, “and when I get bored of all that, I’ll make it look like he’s going to try to meet with their competition to sell them Vishkar secrets.”

“Wait, wait.” He said, closing the trunk, “What was tha’ one ‘bout datin’?”

“Oh, his dating profiles?” She asked, an impish smile on her face, “Yeah, Cheshire gagged when she saw them, but on our way here we’ve been changing little things on them here and there.”

“Loike?” he prompted.

“Age preferences for one.” She said, “From mid twenties to early thirties to late eighties to early nineties.”

“Please tell me ‘e has takers!” he laughed.

“Oh, he does.” She said, holding up her phone, showing several older ladies, “Ches and I have been trying to decide if we should reply to Saanvi, Prisha or Kiara.”

He stared thoughtfully at the photos for a moment, using his fingers to swap between them before he looked up at her and asked, “Which one has less teeth?”

Her smile broadened, “I like the way you think.” She purred.

“If ya loike tha’ idea, then we’re gonna have a ripper of a toime.” He chuckled as they made their way back to the café, “’Cause I got a million of ‘um!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my most recently released chapter for this series, after this, a3o will be on the same schedule as ff.


	59. Accepted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roadhog reflects on the way Junkers are treated in Australia, Pharah decides she'd finally like to have a word with him, Molly's surprise is unveiled and a new member joins Overwatch.

Roadhog made his way back to the ape’s lab, the warmth of his little sheila’s hug fading away as his stomach started twisting a bit. He’d been there earlier that morning to talk to Ana, Morrison and Winston (with Hammond napping nearby on a pile of what looked like shredded date paper) about if Molly had asked him any questions about genetics or cellular decay and other things he had never heard of.  
After that oddly specific set of scientific questions, he explained that she hadn’t, but wanted to know why the fuck they’d ask him that.  
After explaining their theory that Molly may know how Reyes became Reaper from peaking into that witch’s twisted mind and letting that fact sink in, he found that, as terrifying as that thought was, it made more sense than his theory that she learned it from Mercy. After all, the witch had been working with Reaper for a long time, both here at Overwatch when they’d tell McCree and Genji that she was helping him with some ‘condition’ he had, and since then, working with him in Talon. With her spot in the Ministry, she’d probably had plenty of time and resources to know everything about how Reaper did his little shitty magic tricks.  
“It’s just a theory for now.” Ana had assured him, “She could have picked a bit up from Sombra or Angela…”  
“Angela?” The Silverbacked scientist repeated, shocked.  
“So she did know somethin’ after all.” Hog said. Ana and Morrison jerked their head back a bit in surprise, while Winston cried, “Can someone please explain-“  
“She looked shell shocked when she learned tha’ Molly didn’ learn ‘bout how tha’ Reyes bloke became Reaper from ‘im.” Hog obliged, “Then she koinda looked as if she was guilty ‘bout somethin’. Put two ‘n two together.” He gave them a bitter smile they couldn’t see behind his mask and asked, “Who worked with advanced medicine ‘n knew th’ bloke way back then? Granted, th’ witch also fits, but Molly’s been ‘round Angela much longer. Made more sense tha’ she’d pick it up from ‘er than th’ witch.”  
“But Angela doesn’t understand how her nano made him turn to smoke.” Morrison finally piped in, “So the only other option is Moira.”  
“… would’ve preferred Angela.” Hog grumbled.  
“I think we can all agree with you there.” Winston sighed, “But even with our speculation, we won’t really know until we ask Molly. For all we know, Sombra could have hacked into Moira’s files and learned how she turned Reyes into Reaper.”  
“We can only hope…” Morrison grumbled. Hog grunted in agreement, Sombra’s mind was an enigma, but it was probably safer than the witch’s mind. Easier to understand too. And he hadn’t seen her at the petshop that day, but since the witch and the others in Talon had vanished so quickly and Winston and Athena had been unable to track them around the island, it was most likely that Sombra had helped the Talon heads make their grand escape undetected. But part of him doubted that Sombra would just randomly think about what made Gabriel Reyes turn into Reaper while all of that was happening. No, after going over Winston’s and Morrison’s reports after Rat, Molly and Bob went to bed, he knew that there had been so much going on that it’d be difficult for Sombra to be the one…  
But then again… Molly had run off on her own for a small period of time in the shop, she might have wandered around near Sombra while she was invisible and picked something up…  
“Winston, Agents Song and Correia dos Santos have arrived with the interviewee.” Athena reported, interrupting his thoughts.  
“Interview?” the old soldier repeated, narrowing his eyes at Winston.  
“Jack…” Ana warned.  
“Just out of the blue? No telling us?!” He snapped.  
“Winston is in charge of this Overwatch.” She reminded him, “He doesn’t have to tell us everything, especially when we haven’t been very forthcoming with information ourselves.”  
“That’s different-!” He started before Ana gave him a glare that made the rest of his words die on his tongue.  
“The man I’ll be talking to saved Lúcio’s sister and her baby’s life.” Winston explained, “He’s a field medic and he was interested in our cause. I am simply going to talk with him today and if I don’t feel he’ll make a good fit, we’ll send him away, but I have a good feeling about him.”  
“Athena, when was the last time he said something like that about a possible agent?” 76 asked.  
“When Agents Junkrat and Roadhog first arrived to base.” Athena replied.  
“See? He has good instincts.” Ana purred triumphantly.  
Hog smiled broadly.  
Rat was right, Ana really is a true cobber.  
Morrison clenched his fists, although if it was because he wanted to argue with her but didn’t want to piss him off or because he and Rat had actually been huge helps to the cause, he had no idea, but a few seconds of shaking with anger, he finally snapped, “I want any data we have on this recruit.”  
“Jack-“ Ana warned.  
“It’s fine.” Winston said, waving her off, “If you would please, Athena.”  
A see through blue screen popped up in front of Morrison and Hog squinted at the backwards letters across the top, ‘nitsuguA etsitpaB-naeJ’ and saw a young, dark skin man with a friendly expression in the photo.  
Morrison moved his finger down past the short bio on the man and moved down to his afflications where his finger froze and his expression darkened.  
“The Caribbean Coalition.” He snarled, “This bastard is with Talon.”  
“Caribbean who?” Hog pipped up, reminding them all that he was still there.  
“The Caribbean Coalition,” Winston answered, “They were one of the armies that fought during the Omnic crisis. Many of them couldn’t find any work there that allowed them to use the skill sets they gained during the war, so they joined mercenary groups. Many from the coalition joined Talon, not really knowing what it was.”  
“They didn’t care after a while either.” Morrison snarled as he jabbed at the floating screen, “How do you know he’s any better?”  
“’E wanted ta come ‘ere.” Hog answered in the ape’s stead, taking a step in front of him for good measure, “I was in th’ ALF. I helped set off a bloody nuclear apocolapse tha’s left th’ Outback lookin’ loike a Mad Max film. ‘M a junker with a rap sheet ‘n a bounty tha’s bigger than ‘im.” He held out his arms, “But ‘m ‘ere. Doin’ th’ roight thin’. Bloke prob’ly wants ta do th’ same.”  
They heard a small squeak from the back and the four of them turned to see Hammond standing up on his ball of destroyed date paper before he started squeaking again and Winston seemed to look a bit embarrassed before saying, “I’m fine, Hammond. But thank you-“  
The tiny creature then crawled out of the ball and began squeaking louder and jabbing a claw towards Hog and motioning for him to move with his other paw.  
He oblidged, out of curiosity, only for the hamster to seemingly lose his shit at the sight of Morrison and start squeaking louder and waving his tiny limbs around.  
“Hammond, please calm down, I am handling this!” the Silverbacked Scientist blurted, embarrassed.  
Hog looked to Morrison and chuckled, “Think ‘e’s tellin’ you off, mate.” Ana covered her mouth with her hand, most likely covering the smile he could see out of the corners of the lens on his mask.  
“We do not have time for this!” The old man shouted, “We have a Talon agent in the building!”  
“Ex-“ Winston began, only for Morrison to press the button to open the door and leg it out of the room.  
“JACK!” Ana called as she poked her head out after him.  
Hog pulled at his hook as he walked over to her and held it out to her, “I could get ‘im back-“ He offered.  
She pulled her head back and gave him a small smile, “Thank you, but I don’t think anything we can say or do now will stop him now.”  
“You sure ‘bout tha’?” He asked, a bit insulted.  
“Even if you did get him back in here, he would just try to find another way.” She told him, then looked at the ceiling, “Athena, could you have Reinhardt go to the garage to make sure Jack doesn’t do something we’ll regret?”  
“Of course Agent Amari.” Athena complied, “Also, it’s almost time with your chat with the Australian Government.”  
Hog took that as his cue to leave to see his daughter off and excused himself.  
Now that he was on his way back, he wondered how that chat with the Australian Government went.  
Probably badly.  
He sighed, hopefully the whole world wouldn’t turn on his little sheila in one day, but if any group of drongos could make that happen…  
He shook his head, it wouldn’t help him to think negatively, there was still Molly’s surprise to look forward to today after all… He smiled as he recalled her trying to climb up his leg to get her phone back as she whined Hana’s name, upset at the thought of Pipsqueak spoiling her surprise.  
The smile slid off his face when he reached the door to the Ape’s lab and knocked.  
The door opened for him revealed Ana hunched over a table, shaking and hissing out what he’d guess were curses in her native tongue and Winston’s hair puffed up and taking in deep breaths while Hammond was shrieking at the spot where they’d project any foreign nationals they spoke with and holding up what Hog would guess were his middle claws. Bits of toilet paper and small squares with letters and numbers, most likely from a keyboard, scattered about the floor.  
Not good.  
Roadhog felt as if someone had stuck a pitchfork into his pig covered belly and started twisting his organs around like spaghetti and his lungs seemed to suddenly run dry of air.  
“It’s out, ain’t it?” He wheezed, his body starting to quake as well.  
“No.” The ape breathed, taking a moment to collect himself and readjust his glasses and pat the furious ex-MEKA champ with a foot, silencing him, before he explained, “People have been talking, of course, but according to the Australian government, the Sombra Collective has been stopping any and all digital attempts to spread the information.” A devious smile that Hog didn’t know the gorilla before him capable of blossomed on his face, revealing long, sharp teeth that he forgot he had as he purred that, “They were a bit concerned about that until I explained that we’d heard chatter about the group owing Cheshire a favor. After I told them that, they were very concerned. Apparently they feared that the Sombra Collective has told Cheshire their plan to use Molly as bait to lure her out.”  
Hog felt a tiny bit of relief and catharsis slow the twisting of his organs and sucked in another breath before huffing out, “’N?”  
“I told them I had no idea outside the chatter we’d collected what Cheshire and the groups connections were, but that it would be best to scrap that plan and to simply do their best to keep Molly’s mother’s identity a secret.” He said simply, looking quite pleased with himself.  
Hog made a mental note to get the Ape something nice or something as his guts continued to untwist and his lungs seemed to slowly remember how to work. What he would get or do for his giant, furry boss, he had not yet decided, but he could probably ask Lena to get some ideas and keep an eye out in Cairo for anything the Ape could use later.  
Ana finally pushed herself away from the table with a loud intake of air before looking at Hog, her eyes dark with anger, but her Mona Lisa like smile was on full display, “Roadhog, dear, would you come with me to check on our newest possible recruit and take him into a conference room to ready him for an interview?”  
A part of him felt as if she was more telling him to go with her than asking and another part of him felt as of being alone with a pissed off Ana Amari was not the wisest move and a larger piece of himself used the same tone he used with Rat when he warned him to not be a wise ass, he still felt the words leave his mouth, “Ya need me ta reel in Morrison tha’ bad?”  
Her eyes brightened a bit and she let out a short laugh as she crossed the room and gently patted his shoulder, a bit more relaxed than she was before, “Reinhardt can handle Jack, we just need to buy some time for Winston to clean up a bit and order a new keyboard before he can start the interview and you have insider knowledge from working with Sombra before and your chats with Cheshire. You could get him to feel more comfortable.”  
Hog laughed at that suggestion as he gently motioned for her to lead the way, his lungs finally back to their normal levels of useless as he called out, “’Thena, where’s this new bloke?”  
“The cafeteria, Agent Song and Agent Correia Dos Santos have been showing him the more communial areas of the base and Agent Reinhardt has finally gotten Commander Morrison to stand down.”  
“That man is a miracle worker.” Ana sighed with relief, her body language showing she was calming down as they left Winston’s lab and made their way towards the cafeteria.  
They walked in silence for a bit, the sound of their feet hitting the floor and Roadhog’s chain jingling the only things drowning out the fact that neither of them were talking.  
“What did they say ta get you three so pissed?” he finally asked.  
Ana’s expression darkened again, “They had the gall to suggest that if Molly’s safety was such a concern to you and Cheshire, then you two should have stayed in Junkertown with her where you all belonged.” She spat, her voice thick with venomous rage that made him nearly wince, “And that you all should have kept Junkrat with you all while you were at it.” she then snarled out a few odd sounds that sounded a lot like curses to him before taking a deep breath to calm herself.  
He was so glad she was on their team, he knew all too well that a mother’s wrath was never something you wanted to be on the receiving end of, and since Ana Amari wasn’t someone you wanted to cross when she was in a good mood, he could only imagine the carnage she could cause in her current state as she continued;  
“I tried to explain that Junkertown was no place for a child, or anyone for that matter. That the radiation and climate alone could easily kill an adult, and any parent would want their children to grow up safe and healthy,” She began to shake again, “And you know how they responded to that?”  
“That th’ world would be better off if we all just carked it before we started causin’ trouble.” He huffed, a fire raging in his belly despite knowing that was the general Australian public’s (as well as probably a good portion of the world’s) opinion when it came to Junkers.  
‘It would be better if they all jus’ carked it.’  
‘Fuckin’ Junkers, hope they boil in all tha’ radiation.’  
‘Junkers are loike fuckin’ roaches, can’ even kill th’ bastards off with nukes!’  
He’d heard it plenty of times in various, colorful ways when outside the radiated wilds of the Outback. He and every other Junker old enough to venture out of the hollowed out metal walls of Junkertown knew that the world would rather they all fuck off and die so they can stop causing ‘trouble’. Still, hearing those fuckers talking about Molly and Junker children in particular dying in such a horrible way for simply being born as a Junker was something that made him want to walk back into the Ape’s lab and demand a conference with the bastards who said that in person.  
Those kids never had a choice in where they were born or their circumstances. The ones who came to Junkertown not long after it was created, like Rat, didn’t have much choice either. Because of the Omnic Crisis and the Omnics in Oz still attacking people, there were many children left orphaned and many orphanages and foster homes were full. And after the Omnium exploded, many more children in the area were left orphaned without anywhere else to go but the new home the surviving adults were building, the cities and towns were too far away for a child with no supplies or help to get there alive in the radiated hell hole they were now stuck in. Many orphans from the outside fled abusive facilities or foster homes because no one would listen to them and they felt it was better to run than stay and ended up in Junkertown.  
Those children only wanted to live happy lives, playing games and growing up healthy and surrounded by people who cared for them, and because of how the world viewed Junkers, they always had to settle for just surviving and a good portion of them didn’t have too many people looking out for them.  
How was that fair?  
Hog felt a hand touch his arm, pulling him from his thoughts as he finally looked at Ana. Her face was squished with concern as she asked, “How long have you heard people say that to you?”  
“Ever since we fucked up th’ Outback.” He said, his tone bitter despite his best efforts. It had been a while since he’d last heard someone say that. Yeah he knew people felt that way and over the years, and back when he was still in Australia, he had gone numb to the words.  
He’d had to. He was a Junker. He needed to survive and letting the words of strangers who could and would never understand life out there get to him would do him no good out in the hellhole that was once the Outback.  
But here at Overwatch, they weren’t just Junkers, they were Roadhog, Junkrat, Molly and Hammond the hamster. They were people (well, most of them), just like everyone else here. They were accepted and cared for and encouraged to grow as people…  
They didn’t have to settle for just surviving anymore, they could live and thrive.  
Maybe that was why hearing it now hurt like it did when he first started hearing it all those years ago. Because he had finally felt as if he was being accepted for who he was, as Roadhog… as Mako, only to be reminded that the rest of the world still refused to accept that Junkers were humans. They were criminals, yes, but they became that way due to a need to survive after no one bothered to reach out and help. The children born there or came there at a young age either couldn’t remember or didn’t know any other way to live and were never given any chance to change. How could one learn to be a normal person when no one treated you like one?  
He felt Ana take a few of his fingers in both of her hands and start to stroke them with her thumbs, “Well, I am glad you, Junkrat, Molly and Hammond are alive, healthy and are with us. You all have become a part of this family and we are grateful to have you all.” She told him, as if reading his mind again.  
He felt as if she’d shot him with one of her serums, a small prick and suddenly a gentle, healing warmth washes over you. He smiled as he gently covered her hands with the rest of his fingers and put his other hand under hers.  
“Even Pharah?”  
She laughed and patted the top of his hand with her free one, “You’re getting there.”  
He chuckled along with her as they let go and continued to make their way down to the cafeteria as Ana apologized for her daughter’s stubbornness.  
“She gets it from her father.” She said with a shake of her head, “Honestly, I bet he’s still holed up in that cabin of his in the middle of nowhere…”  
“What did he do for work?”  
“He was a park ranger, probably still is. He always adored nature and refused to give up on trying to get Fareeha to enjoy camping.” She made a face, “Fareeha was always more interested in fighting and exploring the streets of Europe than the wilds of Canada.”  
“Bet she loiked spendin’ toime with ‘im, though.” Hog found himself saying.  
“It was probably one of the few things she enjoyed about it. Oh, she’d always come home covered in bug bites, poison ivy, bruises, and cuts. But she’d always come home smiling and tell me how her father had praised her for putting her tent up all by herself or how they’d made s’mores together or how she’d caught a fish all by herself.”  
“Prob’ly came in handy.” He pointed out.  
“Yes, probably, but Reinhardt was the one who actually taught those things to her, her father was more of a man who could learn through verbal instructions and always believed that Fareeha was like him even though I constantly told him that she was a visual learner.” She shook her head, “I overheard Reinhardt offer his help after another of her camping trips with her father didn’t go so well, he even offered to keep it a secret so Sam and I would never find out.”  
“You watched every lesson, didn’t you?”  
“It was very educational, and I let Sam watch through my phone and he even started incorporating Reinhardt’s tactics for helping her into his own lessons.” She confirmed with a smile.  
“How did ‘e do tha’?”  
“Reinhardt was very informative and always very patient with her when she was having a hard time. Sometimes he’d ask her if she’d rather do something more fun for a while whenever she got frustrated and he’d do whatever she wanted...” Her smile then faltered into a frown, “Part of me wishes I had been more firm with Sam and had him do more things with her that she liked instead of always just letting him force her to go camping with him because he wanted to when she was younger.”  
“’E prob’ly wanted to share somethin’ ‘e loved with ‘is little girl,” Hog said, “‘N while ‘e should have tried ta do somethings she loiked ta do from toime ta toime instead of makin’ it all ‘bout ‘is needs. It sounds loike ‘e eventually caught on ‘n I think havin’ Reinhardt be there with her ta do th’ things she couldn’ do with ‘er Da’ made up for it… ‘E prob’ly spoiled ‘er rotten though.”  
Ana let out a laugh and said, “He always made sure they followed my rules, but yes, Reinhardt did spoil her.”  
“Spoils you too, loike mother loike daughter.” He chuckled.  
“Yes, he used to spoil both of us when she was younger. Once he handed me a request for a month off to take me and Fareeha to Blizzard Land the summer it first opened!”  
“You actually give ‘im th’ time off?” He said, the door to the cafeteria finally in sight.  
“No, Fareeha had school later that month, but for the week before she had to go back, we did have a wonderful time there together. Remind me to show you the pictures, the ones we took there are some of my favorites of her at that age!” She told him as they reached it, the door opening to reveal Reinhardt leaving with his massive arm on his friend’s shoulder.  
“Ah, Ana, Roadhog! Here to greet our vistor?” He asked, his voice as loud and cheerful as ever. 76 grumbled at that as the German giant gently urged him further down the hall, “He’s very nice! I think he’ll do well here!” The old soldier growled as his old friend pushed him further down the hall, “Let me know if anyone sends pictures of little Molly with her mother!” The large man said with a wave as he moved Morrison further and further until they turned the corner.  
Once they were out of sight, they turned their attention to the four remaining people in the room, Pharah stiffening at the sight of her mother as she walked further in and held out her hand to the only person whose name they didn’t know, “Hello, my name is Ana Amari-”  
“I know who you are! You are a legend!” the man gushed as he took her hand and gave it a good shake, “I was just speaking with your daughter about how our commander had us place a poster of you as a reminder to watch each other’s backs and to always protect the innocent!”  
“Your commander has excellent taste.” She said approvingly, making him laugh.  
“My name is Jean-Baptiste Augustin, but you can call me Baptiste!” He said cheerfully.  
“It’s nice to meet you, “Ana turned and motioned to Roadhog, “And this is Roadhog.”  
To his surprise, the man did not flinch or freeze or look fearful in anyway, instead, he walked over and held out his hand, “It’s nice to finally meet you, Hana has told me all about you and your daughter!”  
Hog stiffened and glared at Hana, who said, “What? Like I’m not going to show off pictures of your kid and her puppy being adorable! That’s like, half the stuff on my phone now.” She said, holding up her phone to him, revealing her wallpaper to be her, Molly and Bob, smiling broadly in a big hug.  
He made a mental note to ask her to show him how to get a cute picture of Molly and Bob to be on his phone like that all the time.  
“Considering how the Australian Government needs to be threatened to consider keeping Molly’s parentage a secret, perhaps it would be good to tone it down a bit, Hana.” Ana suggested.  
Pharah looked to Hog, stunned, “You threatened the Australian Government?!”  
“I bloody wish.” He grumbled as he then politely introduced himself to Baptiste and gently shook his hand before letting go tell her that, “Winston did.”  
“But we can discuss that and try to get our new friend caught up to speed on everything on the way to the conference room for his interview. We wouldn’t want to keep Winston waiting and upset Hammond again.”  
“Who is Hammond?” Baptiste asked.  
“He’s a hamster who was the MEKA champion in Junkertown for years!” Hana answered excitedly, Baptiste looking to Roadhog for confirmation.  
He nodded, “Molly proved it, Pipsqueak has it all on ‘er phone.” He said before Ana motioned for all of them to follow her and began leading them towards the door.  
He felt another arm on his, only, it was a different Amari this time. Pharah looked at him with dark eyes and a determined expression.  
Looks like someone wanted to talk.  
“Hey, I wanted to ask Roadhog about an idea I have for a new lesson for Molly, you guys go on ahead, we’ll catch up.” She said.  
Hana’s eyes widened, as if she had just remembered something and she blurted, “Remember to stay out of the kitchen!”  
“What is in the kitchen that is so important?” Baptiste asked, his eyes wide and sparkling. Most likely excited to hear more about this crazy place.  
“Ah, Molly’s surprise.”Ana said, “I think you can leave them here unsupervised, Hana. They’ve done well so far, I think they can last a bit longer.”  
Pipsqueak glared at the two of them, silently threatening them harm if they spoiled Molly’s surprise.  
“I’ll make sure no one ruins Molly’s surprise ‘til ya say so.” Hog promised, even moving a massive finger to make an ‘X’ over his heart.  
The tiny pro-gamer looked from him to Pharah and back before saying, “Okay, but only because you’re a good Dadhog!”  
“Ta.” He said as they made their way out, Baptiste asking, “Dadhog?” before the door closed behind them.  
Hog didn’t look at her, he simply grunted, “Ya can talk ta me without it bein’ ‘bout Molly, ya know.”  
“It’s not like I talk to you about anything other than Molly.” She said as she took a seat at a nearby table.  
“Book club.” He reminded her. Her eyes widened, “Oh yeah, but it’s been a while since the last time we had it.”  
“Been pretty crazy ‘round ‘ere.” He said with a shrug as he took the spot opposite her, “’M guessin’ this has ta do with Angie.” He said as the seat creaked in protest under his weight.  
She nodded, “Sort of. First of all, I owe you an apology. Well, more than one really…” She straightened a bit in her seat and looked him right in the eye, ”I’m sorry for the way I treated you and Junkrat when you two first got here. I never bothered to try to learn what life was like back in Junkertown and instead just assumed you two were horrible criminals and that you deserved everything the law had to throw at you. I never considered what kind of horrors you or Junkrat had to deal with on a daily basis, both due to the environment, the people and the fact that no one ever bothered to try and help you all after the Omnium blew. Never did any homework about that until recently.”  
“Most people don’ ‘n never will.” Hog told her, “But ya don’ need ta-“  
“Please.” She said with a raise of her hand, “I was raised to be honorable and to treat others with respect.”  
“Respect is earned.” He argued, “’N we hadn’ done anythin’ ta earn it yet when we got ‘ere. Not loike we ain’ used ta it.”  
“It doesn’t mean it was right. Symmetra and I both believe in bringing order to chaos, but she was polite to you when you first got here. She believed you two wanted to be better like Junkrat said you did and gave you two a chance. I didn’t and was nothing but rude to you two when you first got here.”  
“Yer not th’ first ta do tha’ to us. Won’ be th’ last.” He said simply, “’N You ‘n ‘Metra are different people, even if ya agree on somethin’, don’ mean yer raisin’ ‘n experience brings ya ta feel th’ same. ‘Metra believes in second chances. You don’, fer good reasons. Don’ mean one of ya is wrong or right, you believe in what ya do based on yer experiences ‘n ideals. If ya believe in somethin’, it’s hard ta let it go, especially in your case. Catchin’ crims loike us aside, you grew up hearin’ tha’-“  
“You should always fight for what you believe in.” Pharah recited for him, “Yeah, but I was wrong, wasn’t I? You and Junkrat are actually pretty nice.”  
Hog snorted at that, “Maybe Rat is.”  
She made a face, “Why do you do that?”  
“Do what?”  
“Put yourself down so much. I mean, I know you were in the ALF, but no one knew that blowing an Omnium was like dropping a small nuclear bomb on the Outback. And it wasn’t like attacking it was your idea.”  
He nearly laughed out loud at that. He wasn’t responsible? That was bloody hilarious, after all, he was the one who-  
He stopped himself from finishing that thought and shoved it into the back of his mind before finally huffing out a sigh, “I played my part. I saw what happened after th’ damn thing blew. No matter what ya tell me, I know what I’ve caused ‘n I have to loive with tha’.”  
She looked at him, concerned, then determined, “Isn’t that part of the reason you came here? Do make up for what you’ve done by doing the right thing?”  
“Thought I did th’ roight thin’ back then. But look where tha’ got me.” He said, then sighed, “After Rat got us tangled up with those Hyde bastards, I told him ta not bother ta try to foind us anymore legit jobs. Tha’ we’d end up fucked over again. Ya know what ‘e said?”  
“Let’s go blow something up?” She guessed.  
He laughed, “Well, later, yeah, but at th’ toime ‘e said, ‘Ya never know. But yer roight ‘bout one thing, no one ‘ere in Oz will ever give us a fair shake so why don’ we go somewhere else? It’s a big world out there, Roadie! Maybe somewhere out there we’ll foind a place tha’ won’ fuck us over, or at least will pay us first ‘fore we do a job!’”  
“He sure is optimistic.” She said with a shake of her head.  
“Tha’s a noice word for it.” He said flatly, making her laugh.  
“But anyways, back to what I was saying, after you guys showed that you were really decent guys, I still was pretty nasty to you two. And after I found out you liked Angela too…”  
“Yeah, ‘bout tha’,” he said, hoping to kinda change the subject from that a bit, “why didn’ you ever get pissed with th’ cyborg?” He asked, “Cowboy said he was into ‘er fer a long toime…”  
“Oh, I’ve known Genji since I was a little kid. I know that, number one, he can take me. And number two, the couple times I did threaten him, I was either a child while he was still in his Hanzo stage...”  
“His what now?” Hog asked.  
“Oh, yeah, after he became a cyborg, he was all moody and grouchy and just… you know, like Hanzo is now.” She said, “But I mean, he’d been betrayed by his own brother and turned into something that isn’t exactly human, I can’t blame him for being moody. But like I was saying; I was a kid, he was a Hanzo, he was dealing with other stuff and there I was trying to be all ‘Angie is mine!’…” She looked down at the table top and fiddled with a stray crumb on it, “Like she was some sort of prize or toy and not a person…”  
“Loike you said, you were a kid.” He said, putting his hand over hers.  
“That doesn’t excuse it!” She snapped, pulling her hand away.  
“Do ya still do tha’?” He asked.  
“What? No! Of course not!” She cried.  
“Then, I think ya should take yer own advise ‘bout bein’ hard on yerself.” He said, gently poking her shoulder with a finger.  
Pharah seemed taken aback for a moment before she smiled at him, “You’re spending too much time with my mother.” She accused.  
“Yer not th’ only one who needs ‘er guidance. I dunno what ‘m really doin’ as a parent ‘n yer Mum ‘n Torb are a big help.” He said.  
“And you trust their advice completely?” She teased.  
“They raised you ‘n Brigitte,” He said simply, “Obviously they did somethin’ roight.”  
Pharah flushed, then smiled at him, “Charmer.” She accused.  
“Yeah, ‘m fuckin’ Casanova.” He joked, making her chuckle, “but back ta th’ subject, so ‘e never saw you as a threat when you were a kid ‘n ‘e was a Hanzo. But what stopped you from threatin’ Genji ta stay away now? You could prob’ly go toe ta toe with ‘um if ya really went fer it.”  
“Because now he’s too much of a zen goofball who remembers little Fareeha saying that years ago and thinking that it’s ‘so cute that I still have a crush on her!’”  
Hog let out a snort before managing a ‘sorry’ before biting back snickers at the image of the younger Shimada gushing about how ‘cute’ she was while she was threatening him to back off her crush.  
“Go ahead, laugh, I was being a bit of a brat.” She admitted, “Then and now.”  
Despite her saying that, he did his best to hold back his giggles for another couple of seconds before letting a decent portion of them out. She was a good sport and held in the frustration until he decided he could let the rest of them out later and patted her on the shoulder, “At least ya know tha’ now.”  
“Yeah…” she said, “But still, I shouldn’t have done that either. Angela is a grown woman who will pick whomever she wants. Even if I’m sad it’s not me, I shouldn’t have been rude to Genji or you.”  
He let her words settle before finally asking something he’d been curious about fro a while now, “… How come ya never threatened me? Mean, got glares ‘n shit from ya, but ya never straight up told me to get stuffed ‘n lay off.” He asked her, “So why didn’ ya try ta take me on or tell me off?”  
“… Seriously?” She asked, “Obviously I wouldn’t want to fight you, you could probably snap me in half…”  
“’N have yer Mum after me? No way.” He said flatly.  
“Then there was the fact that Junkrat can and will roast anyone who talks shit about you alive and Molly would have no issue telling on me to Angela and my mother and Bob would probably pee on something of mine…” She listed off of her fingers, before holding up her hands as if they were a scale, “It’s a four against one, I would lose before I could even start a fight. Physical, verbal or otherwise.”  
He considered her points and smiled, pleased that he had such a loyal best mate, a loving daughter and a good dog. “What can I say, Rat can be a determined pain in th’ arse when ‘e wants ta be, which is most of th’ toime.” She covered her mouth, a smile curled on the edges of her cheeks. “’N Molly gets ‘er ruthlessness from ‘er Mum. ‘N let me tell ya, tha’ sheila can hold a grudge.”  
Pharah let out a snort as he told her that, “As fer Bob, I think ‘e jus’ pisses on people who piss ‘im off.” She let out a laugh at that, then she seemed to recall something and asked, “Say, you and Molly’s mother, Cheshire, you two were close, right?”  
“Practically had ‘er attached ta my hip in the ALF.” He confirmed, “Why?”  
“Well, she really seems to like you and I was wondering what would happen if she found out that you liked Angela?” She asked.  
Ah.  
Yes.  
That.  
He had no fucking clue.  
Their last interaction was fairly pleasant and Cheshire seemed to like her and Angie had told her that she was Molly’s doctor. Surely she wouldn’t be violent towards someone her daughter liked and trusted, especially since Angie was the one who made sure her daughter was healthy and helped care for her.  
But at the same time, Cheshire could do damage both when upset and calm, and even if she didn’t hurt anyone, there was still the issue that Cheshire might be hurt by the fact that he and Angie were kinda interested in one another and taking care of her little girl without her.  
“Roadhog?” Pharah called.  
“Honestly, I dunno.” He admitted with a sigh, “I doubt she’ll hurt her since she ‘n Molly both loike ‘n trust ‘er ‘n ‘cause she’s Molly’s doctor. But ‘m worried ‘bout how she’ll feel ‘bout it. Even though I feel I’ve been pretty blunt, she ‘n I have never really talked ‘bout our relationship ‘n I should’ve talked ta ‘er ‘bout it sooner…” He recalled her huddled, sobbing form on his couch, hugging her abdomen under the blanket he put over her, “Maybe if I did, we could’ve saved Molly ‘n ‘er siblings sooner ‘n she wouldn’ of had to feel loike she could never have a family ‘til now…”  
Pharah seemed to soak in his words before patting his shoulder, “Then you two would have dozens of kids and no way to support them, and there’s a big chance you two wouldn’t have been able to get them all out on your own anyway.”  
He let out a grunt to let her know he’d heard her, but he could easily picture ways he and Cheshire could’ve done it, starting with telling the Queen the reason Cheshire had been so much more violent and point out that Hyde made robots and had plenty of shiny tech and cash. Even thought Queenie was a Grade A cunt, Cheshire was a Junker and Hyde, who had made all of the police bots in Oz, had taken something from her that could never be recovered. And she would never be the same for that.  
Not to mention all the tech and money that they could get, it would be an easy sell to Queenie to help them get all of Junkertown on it.  
But still, he couldn’t deny that Pharah was right about supplies, supporting close to a hundred children, especially ones younger than five depending when he would have talked to her, would be VERY difficult, and they’d be receiving what could be enough radiation to kill them. Winston even said that a few other children had gotten less radiation than the amount that they’d probably soak up in Oz and hadn’t made it. It was hard to think about, but she could be right, not to mention that it honestly didn’t matter how much he thought about it, it didn’t change anything.  
He couldn’t change the past. And even if he bribed Lena to try to see if she could do something, he had a feeling that even if she could get to the right time and place, it wouldn’t work anyway.  
Pharah finally snapped him out of his thoughts with a hand outstretched to him, “Fareeha Amari.” She said.  
He felt his jaw drop a bit, only for him to pull it back up and tell her, “Yeah, I know, I talk ta yer Mum on the reg.” He then carefully took her hand and gave it a shake, “Mako Rutledge.”  
“Yeah, I know, I’ve seen your wanted posters.” She replied with a smile.  
“Those things are crap!” He laughed, “look nothin’ loike me!”  
“They are!” she agreed as she started to laugh with him, “The first time I saw it was after I saw you on the security tapes and I just remember asking what the hell they were on to think you looked like that!”  
The two laughed for a bit, Ph-Fareeha telling him all about the various criminals who had posters that didn’t resemble them at all, and he finally told her how they got into the building that her old company had been in charge of securing.  
“Wow. I had no idea we had such a giant hole in our security. How the hell did Junkrat find it?”  
“Dunno. Rat’s jus’ good at tha’ sort of thing. Always can foind a weak spot we can use ta get in.”  
“So he gets you in and you have to bust him out?” She asked with a laugh.  
“Somethin’ loike tha’.” He said.  
“All agents, please report to the Mess Hall as soon as you can, it’s time for Molly’s surprise to be unveiled.” Athena announced. A moment later the door whizzed open and Pipsqueak to rush in and shout, “You two, in the kitchen, I need help!” before the door to the kitchen opened and she dashed through.  
Hog and Fareeha looked at one another, confused, before he got up, “You coming?”  
She sighed, “Might as well, she might hurt herself if we leave her alone. I mean, last time she was this hyper about something to do with Molly, she tried to kick a sliding door open and hurt her ankle. I don’t want to think about the kind of injury she could get in a room with fire and knives.”  
He nodded and the two walked in to see Hana pulling something out of the fridge, a handwritten sign from Molly taped to it.  
“dL3AS3 DOU’T Od3U, SnRdRIS3 IUSIb3.” Which translated into “please don’t open, surprise inside.”  
“’Er handwritin’s gettin’ better.” He said as he carefully removed the note from the fridge, a warm smile curling up his lips, “’Er A’s are th’ roight way up now...”  
“I know, right?” Hana said as she struggled to hold a large pot she pulled from the fridge, the top covered with plastic wrap with water droplets.  
Fareeha took it from her, “So Molly’s surprise is soup?” she asked as she took it to the stove top.  
“Not just soup!” the pro-gamer declared proudly as she practically dove back into the fridge and pulled out a few big bowls from inside and handed them to Hog, “We also have salad ANNNNDDDD-“ she then pulled out a long tray, “SANDWICHES!!!!” She sang happily as she held up the tray for Hog to see, “She really went all out on these! Look, she cut them into triangles!”  
He bent down to get a closer look and his smile grew wider, “Did she cut off th’ crusts too?” He asked.  
Hana nodded jubilantly, her eyes twinkling with joy and excitement that he’d noticed, “That’s why we were so full yesterday during dinner! We ate so many crusts!”  
“I’m going to reheat the soup!” Fareeha announced, as if reminding the two she was still there.  
“Oh, that’s not all the soup!” She said as she quickly took the tray and put it onto the island and dashed back towards the fridge while Hog put down the salads on the islands as well before taking the second large pot of soup from Hana, “I’ll get this, you get all the sandwiches out.”  
“But we have one more pot!” she cried.  
“I’ll get it.” He told her, “Get another tray of sandwiches out.”  
She smiled and grabbed another tray before dashing off towards the island, leaving him with the two big pots to deliver to Fareeha by the stove.  
“She certainly went all out.” The Egyptian said as he put the final pot onto the stove, “Although we might need to expand her culinary knowledge. This looks like roasted flour soup, and it looks like she made garden salads and knowing her, the sandwiches probably are practially dripping with strawberry jam…”  
“They have peanut butter and bananas too!” Hana told her as she pulled out another tray.  
“Still, these dishes might clash a bit on the palate.” She then looked at Hana, “Did you teach her how to make the salads?”  
“Yeah! It was really fun! I was thinking we could have Athena film it next time, maybe have a little cooking show…”  
“Hmmm,” Hog said, his mind starting to reel.  
He remembered Hana asking him if she could make a bank account for Molly not too long after her birthday. He gave her the okay, but asked her why she suddenly wanted to do so now. ‘She’s been a big part of my videos for a while now and my fans really love her.’ She told him, ‘She’s helped bring more money in than I was getting before. And I was rolling in it from streaming alone. I want to deposit some of the ad revenue from our videos together into a bank account for her. So she doesn’t have to rely on the tooth fairy and making bets with McCree for cash just in case she wants something.’  
Ad revenue, huh?  
Hmm… maybe he could use this to repay the Ape…  
Well, there was only one way to find out.  
“Oi, Pipsqueak, if ya start havin’ a cooking show with Molly, can ya put some of the money from those ads inta Overwatch’s bank account?” He asked.  
The two women looked at him, surprised.  
“Actually, that might be a good idea.” Athena piped in from above, “Winston has been stressing himself out with all his usual work with the UN while also trying to make sure we have enough missions to be able to keep us up and running and hasn’t had a lot of time to do the projects he would like to work on. Agent Song and Molly are quite popular online, we could possibly make enough money to keep the lights on when we don’t have as many missions.”  
The two seemed to consider this, “We’d need to be careful about who goes in while they’re filming, but it could actually help.” Fareeha said thoughtfully.  
Pipsqueak’s eyes brightened, “Or we could have other members of Overwatch guest star! And we can also use the show to help promote good PR for Overwatch as a whole! If we get popular enough, we can put pressure on the UN to make it legal again!”  
“I will begin pulling up a potiental film schedule and a list of benefits to this plan as well as a potental costs list!” Athena declared, “I will let you know what he thinks as soon as I can!”  
Roadhog gave the ceiling a thumbs up and Hana pulled out her phone, “Gotta text Angela to make sure Cheshire picks out a cute apron for Molly while they’re out. The ones we have here are all too big for her. If we want to do this right, she’ll need one the right size for her. That and I think it’d be cute for her Mom to pick it out for her.” She said as she typed into her phone.  
Fareeha nodded and turned to Hog, “I’ve got this, you help get the rest of the food out of the fridge.”  
He nodded and pulled a few more platters of sandwiches with Hana, taking a better look at the sandwiches they’d made. The banana slices were uneven, the sandwiches didn’t all line up, the halves of the sandwiches were uneven, and Fareeha had been right. There was a lot more jam than peanut butter on them. But Hog just couldn’t stop smiling at them.  
“Hey Hana,” Fareeha called, “Why did Molly decide to make lunch? I mean, if she knew about the new recruit coming today or if she was going to be eating with us, I could understand it. But she didn’t know the new guy would be here and she’s not eating with us, so why-?”  
Hana perked up at the question, “Oh! You’ll love this!” She said excitedly as she slipped her phone back into her pocket, “She said that since her Mom couldn’t come here to eat with everyone, she wanted to make everyone here lunch and have us all start eating at the same time, that way, it was like we were all eating together!”  
Hog felt his smile grow even bigger as Hana grabbed various salad dressings from the fridge, “She said they would order the same thing she made for all of us so we’d all be eating the same thing, but I told her not to, that her mom or Sombra could have allergies that we don’t know about and to just order whatever looked good to her.”  
“She’ll have a rough toime of it then.” Hog joked, “You know she loves ‘er food.”  
“OMG, she’s probably agonizing over what to pick!” she laughed.  
“It shouldn’t be too bad, I mean, didn’t you bring back sampler plate from that place?” Fareeha reminded her.  
“Oh yeah!” Hana cried before pulling her phone out again and began to type something before there was a ding. The tiny pro-gamer’s eyes widened and she looked up at the ceiling, “THEY’VE ORDERED!! ATHENA, WHERE IS EVERYONE!”  
“All of them, including the omnic agents are in the mess hall except for Winston and Mr. Augustin,” Athena began, “But they just wrapped up their interview, so…”  
“TELL THEM TO HURRY UP OR MOLLY AND THE OTHERS WILL EAT WITHOUT US!!” she cried.  
“I will pass the message along.” The AI promised.  
“Pharah!” Hana cried, “Is the soup ready?”  
“Just about.” She said.  
“We need to start putting everything out! Roadhog, start moving the pots to the serving station, Pharah, help me get the salad and sandwiches out!” She commanded, “We need to make sure everyone has a full tray!”  
“Even the omnics?” Fareeha asked, “You realize they can’t eat, right?”  
“We need to include everyone!” She said firmly, “Molly insisted!”  
Hog smiled, she would.  
He then followed Pipsqueak’s orders, his anxiety about the Australian government starting to melt away over the steaming pots of soup he placed in the serving station.  
He was still a tiny bit worried about the Australian government fucking up and putting even more targets on his daughter’s back, but as he watched Hana shout for everyone to get a tray and he saw the joyful and excited expressions on nearly everyone’s faces (Zenyatta and Bastion’s expressions never changed, but Bastion clapped when Hana told them to load up a tray and Zenyatta immediately shot into the air and flew to the serving station so he was one of the first to get some food, so he assumed they were happy or at least excited about it), he felt relief.  
Here, Junkers were people. People that others cared about. He’d been so caught up in how he was viewed and treated back in Oz, that he forgot how kind and understanding people were to him here. That people cared about him and the people he held dear.  
“Come on, Roadhog!” Hana called, Fareeha by her side by the door, “If we don’t get our food ASAP, we won’t be able to eat with Molly, Rat, Angie and others!”  
“Wouldn’ want tha’.” He chuckled before following them out to the mess hall to grab a tray and get to the back of the food line. Right behind Winston, Hammond, who was sitting on his shoulder, and the new bloke, Baptiste, who looked absolutely giddy as he turned to him, “Your daughter was so sweet to make lunch for everyone! I hope I can stick around enough to thank her!”  
Hog smiled at the friendly man and noticed Winston making eye contact with Hammond and nodding, the former MEKA Champion looking a bit excited at the gesture. He may not be a mind reader like his little girl, but he had a good feeling what those two were on about and chuckled, “Don’ think ya should worry too much ‘bout tha’. Afterall, ya already fit in, ‘n if we loike ya, we keep ya. Ain’ tha’ roight, Winston?”  
The Silverbacked Scientist glanced back at him, looking a bit annoyed, “I wish you’d let me at least pretend to consult some of the others before telling him that...” He groaned, “At least to keep Jack off my back…”  
“Wait, I-I am in?” Baptiste asked, looking overjoyed, “Really?!”  
Winston smiled and held out his hand, “Welcome to Overwatch.”  
Baptiste happily took his hand and shook it, “Thank you! Thank you so much!”  
Hana, Fareeha and Orisa, who was in front of Winston, congratulated and welcomed Baptiste to the team, Hammond gave him the closest thing he could to a thumbs up and Hog gave him a gentle pat to the shoulder, “Now tha’s settled, let’s get ya some grub ‘n celebrate proper!”


	60. Presents

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cheshire and Molly swap presents, Sombra accepts a bribe and we learn a bit more about Cheshire’s family.

Angela smiled as they all patiently waited for Molly to choose what she wanted for lunch, the little girl agonizing what to pick as the waitress stood by their table, pencil and pad in hand. She knew this would happen and should have pulled up the menu on her phone for Molly to look at on the way down, but she was just so cute as she frantically scanned the two pages, trying to pick what she wanted for lunch!  
“Everything looks so good...” she whined.  
“We can wait a little longer if you need more time to choose.” Cheshire assured her.  
“But I’m hungry…” She pouted, a pitiful sound came from her stomach as if to prove her point.  
Angela nearly spoke, only for her phone to ding and she glanced at it, ‘Angie, thinking of having a cooking show with Molly, please have her Mom pick out an apron for her while you’re out.’ She smiled, Junkrat had suggested going to an arcade in town for Molly to spend time with her mother by playing games. Which was a sweet idea, allowing them to bond over an interest they shared and, but maybe she could pull them from that for a bit to look at this one shop on the way that had lots of handy kitchen tools and cute kitchen assessories to look at their collection of children’s aprons.  
“Hang on, I got this.” Junkrat said, quickly slipping out of his seat and snapping Angela out of her thoughts as he picked Bob up off the floor and motioned for Cheshire to hold Molly on her lap so she could see.  
“Roight, Bob, ya moind helpin’ us out ‘ere?” he said as he opened up his menu again and tapped on it with a metal finger.  
Bob seemed to look at the page and then pointed his nose towards one of the options.  
“What’s ‘e pointin’ at, Molls?” Junkrat asked.  
“Th’ Turkey, spinach ‘n cranberry Pan-knee-eee?” she struggled to read, Bob nodded.  
“That’s a popular item right now, it comes with a side of crisps. We also have a juice we recommend to go with it that’s made of cranberries and strawberries.” The waitress said.  
Molly’s eyes sparkled at the mention of strawberries and picked up her menu and held it out for the waitress, “Then I’ll have th’ panknee ‘n th’ crisps with tha’ juice please!” she said cheerfully, pleased she had finally made a decision.  
The waitress chuckled as she took the last menu, jotted down the little girl’s order and smiled, “I’ll be back with your drinks in a moment.” She told them then smiled at Molly, “And don’t be afraid to ask for a box so you don’t get too full, you wouldn’t want to miss dessert, would you?”  
Molly shook her head wildly and the adults at the table chuckled as the waitress left to give their orders to the kitchen. Junkrat held Bob out to Molly so she could give him a hug, “thank you Bob!”  
He gave her a few puppy kisses before Junkrat put him back on the floor, where he helped himself to some water from the bowl the waitress had put there for him.  
“Nice one, Rat.” Cheshire praised.  
“Nah, it was all Bob, but I was one of th’ blokes who picked ‘im for Molly ‘ere.” He said.  
“Molly, didn’t Hana ask you to text her once we ordered?” Angela reminded her.  
“Oh, roight, I forgot!” She said, pulling her phone out of her dress pocket and typing out a quick message before putting it away again.  
Sombra had a pensive expression on her face while Molly texted Hana, suddenly she moved farther back in her seat and looked under the table, then looked to Junkrat, “You know, Widowmaker mentioned you used a dog to distract her so you could knock her off a roof the day before we all went to Gibaltar…” She mused.  
“Did she tell ya tha’ she fell ass first inta a trash can ‘n tha’ Bob pissed on ‘er after she knocked herself over ‘n onta th’ ground, still stuck?” Junkrat asked.  
“No!” Sombra blurted, half amused, half annoyed, “I can’t believe she held out on me!”  
“Would you’ve let ‘er live it down?” Cheshire asked her plainly.  
“No!” she said plainly.  
“Then there ya go.” She said. Molly pouted, her cowlicks low on her head as she looked under the table too, assumingly at Bob, “You peed on Widowmaker ‘n didn’ tell me?” she asked him.  
Uh oh…  
Angela heard Bob bark back at her.  
“I know it was late when you got in, but you’ve had plenty of toime ta tell me since!” Molly said sternly.  
Another bark.  
“Between lessons, between meals, ‘fore bed, when we wake up…” Molly listed.  
Another bark, a yip and a whine.  
“Alroight, alroight, but you’re not allowed to hold back on me anymore!” She said firmly, “’N yer tellin’ me th’ story when we get home!” There was a bark that Angela could only assume was an affirming one before she lifted her head back up, looking a bit put out.  
“Aw, come on, Molls, no poutin’!” Junkrat said, “We’re at a noice place with yer Mum!” He then wagged his eyebrows at her, “Ya got yer surprise, roight?”  
Molly seemed confused by his words for a moment before her cowlicks went straight up, and she quickly turned to Angela, “Angie! Th’ bags!”  
Angela smiled and lifted up the two bags she had colored on and covered in her special sparkly birthday bug stickers, “Here you go!” She said, handing the bags over to her.  
Molly bounced in her booster seat as she quickly poked her head into one of them and rummaged around for a moment before handing the bag to Sombra, “This is fer you, it’s a bribe so you keep being a good mate to my Mummy.” Molly told her.  
“Bribe accepted!” Sombra immediately replied as she began tearing into the paper.  
Cheshire barely managed an eyeroll at her actions before Molly crawled into her lap, her eyes sparkling as she held up the other bag for her, “’N this one is yours Mummy!”  
She smiled warmly and chuckled “Well, if we’re opening presents now, best ta get yours out too, luv.” She then called out, “Boss.”  
Sombra shoved her bag towards her bodyguard with one hand and excitedly pulled out a package wrapped in way more tape than tissue paper from her bag.  
“Double wrapping huh? You know how to keep someone in suspense.” Sombra said to Molly before looking to her mother, “Which she definitely did not get from you.”  
Cheshire stuck out her tongue at her before she reached into Sombra’s beach bag and began pulling out slightly lumpy packages wrapped in bright colored paper, one by one and handing them to her little girl, until she pulled out a third and seemingly final package and telling her, “’N this one is from Sombra.”  
“Thank you, Miss Sombra!” Molly said cheerfully before she started to tear into the paper too.  
“Think of it as a thank you for all the entertainment you and Ms. Song have given us on long trips. Nice job on that victory, by the way.” Sombra purred as she peeled at the tape.  
“You were watchin’ too?!” she asked excitedly.  
“Yeah, got some nice wine and chocolates and chips and watched the whole match. Widowmaker even watched it with us.” Sombra told her, “Not that we gave her much of a choice, she wants some of our snacks, she has to watch what we watch.”  
“You sure it wasn’ th’ goon?” Junkrat joked.  
“Nah, she thinks all boxed wine is plonk.” Cheshire replied, somewhat annoyed.  
“Drongo clearly hasn’ had th’ roight goon.” Junkrat said plainly.  
“Struth!” Cheshire laughed.  
“Ohhh!” Sombra gushed as she lifted the ‘bribe’ up for the table to look at. It was what looked like a barette made of scrap metal from the workshop in the shape of her skull logo. “Este es tan lindo!” she said cheerfully as she put it down in her lap and began fiddling with her hair, “I’m putting this on and then I’m going to take a picture with it and then I’m going to send a string of texts to Moira to show it off and tell her that Molly likes me better.”  
“I can also put tha’ in writin’ if you want.” Molly said as she finished unwrapping her present. She then looked down at it, her cowlicks curling into question marks and her face pulled into a confused pout, but as she was about to say something, the waitress came back with their drink orders.  
Molly seemed to quickly put her question aside so she could try her special juice and took a sip, “It’s yummy!” she cried happily.  
“I’ll let the chef know!” The waitress told her with a smile, “I’ll be back with your food in a bit!” she said before leaving again.  
Molly then crawled towards the happy, hairstyling hacker and whispered loud enough for only their table to hear, “Miss Sombra, what’s this?” And held up a purple ball.  
“An EMP, an electromagnetic pulse generator. It can turn off anything electronic within 15 meters.” She whispered back as she finished pulling her hair up into a bun, using the barrette to hold it in place. Angela stiffened.  
An EMP. AN EMP?! What the hölle was she thinking?! If let off in the wrong place, it could shut down emergency vehicles, hospitals, police stations, fire houses, it could stop hearts that had special technology in them, it could take out every robot and omnic in the surrounding area and she gave this to a CHILD!?  
“… Is tha’ a lot?” She asked.  
“Your papa is, what, 2 meters tall?” Sombra asked.  
“2.2 meters.” Angela corrected, her eyes narrowed at Sombra. She was lucky she didn’t want to ruin Cheshire and Molly’s day together or she’d give her a piece of her mind right now, but that didn’t mean she would let her off easy. She’d wait until they were alone and then let her have it!  
“So it’s about as long as seven of your Da’s lined up.” Cheshire translated.  
“… Like lined up side by side or...?” Molly asked, confused. Junkrat, who had been gulping a mouth full of water, quickly covered his mouth for a moment, coughing and giggling at the question as some of it dribbled from between his flesh fingers as he beat his chest with the metal one, Angela handed him an extra napkin and gently patted him on the back. Sombra was amused by it as well, a smile curling up her lip.  
“Lined up as in, with him lying on his back and all of them lined up so the bottom of their feet stop on his head.” Cheshire clarified.  
Molly seemed to soak that in before looking down at the device in her hands, worried before muttering, “Tha’s a lot…” She then looked back up at Sombra, “So, by everything electronic, what do you mean?”  
“Everything that runs on electricity; cars, cameras, street lights, phones, omnics…”  
“WHAT?!” she blurted, horrified.  
“Shhh! Calm down!” Sombra whispered, holding up her hands as if to show she meant no harm, “I figured with Hyde being a robotics company with police bots in a couple of different countries, I should give you something to use in case you’re cornered by one.” Sombra said softly, “That being said, once I find a way into their systems, I can turn off that feature and use it to help us find them and keep them safe…”  
“Ya –cough- mean yer not in yet?” Junkrat asked.  
“No, the police bots run on a special server in a location we’re still trying to figure out. There was one in their headquarters, but someone blew it up last year.” Sombra said, shooting Junkrat a glare, “Most of their data was destroyed in that blast, so it will be hard to find where anything is until we find that second location.”  
Angela felt her stomach twist with dread, “Does that mean that we can’t prove that Hyde hurt Molly and her siblings?”  
Junkrat paled, horrified at the thought that his act of revenge had made it harder to prove that Hyde hurt his niece and several other children.  
“If you have something that can show information about Molly and what they did to her was originally from their servers, we can still prove that they hurt her.” Sombra explained, “But as for finding where the rest of them are, it could be tricky, finding the back up servers is the key and while I have found a location where they could be, it’s heavily guarded. I spoke with my boss to see if there was a chance we could break in, after all, the police bots are looking out for us too, and Hyde did screw us over. He said he’d consider it, but until we can get into that server room, it’s better to keep this on you whenever you leave the base. Heck, take it with you around the base too, couldn’t hurt.”  
Angela’s eyes widened in horror as Molly looked down at the small, round purple ball in her shaking hands and nodded, obviously uneasy, but determined, “How do I use it?” she asked.  
Angela heard Sombra’s voice seem to slip into the background as she let the information sink in.  
Sombra was right. Hyde was a robotics company that made robots to assist the police, so it was possible that they had something in their systems to alert them when one of the children they created was nearby.  
She felt chills creep up her spine and rubbed at the spot on her arm where the gun woman had grabbed her not to long ago. Mako and Junkrat were right to tell her to beware the cops, with Hyde’s robots working for police stations around the world and had access to various criminal and missing persons data bases, they could easily create a false report of kidnapping and have their collegues take any of the kids they wanted back and those who were with them into custody so one of their goons could pick the child up, pretending to be their actual parents, and wisk them away, never to be seen again…  
With Molly’s Junker status being public knowledge, they wouldn’t even need to create a false report to take her away. She was a Junker and since the robots were made in Australia, they probably had some sort of direct order to arrest and detain any and all Junkers, as most of the Australian public saw them as dangerous monsters… It wouldn’t be hard to send people over and have them claim to be some pretend ‘Junker restraining force’ or some other farce to collect her. And even if they raised the alarm, pointing out that Molly had no record of any kind and had not caused any trouble and brought it back to Hyde, they’d probably put on a mask of sheepishness and claim that their robots were designed to take in Junkers, as they were always trouble, that it was just doing it’s job and how would they know there could ever be such a thing as an innocent Junker?  
She clutched at her arm and dug her nails into her skin, struggling to contain the rage in her system and ruining the lovely day they were supposed to be having. If she found the people who programmed the police bots to go after Junkers, even if the Junker in question wasn’t doing anything wrong, she was going to punch them.  
“Well, if all ya need is something tha’ shows Molls’ info on their servers, we got tha’.” Junkrat said, snapping Angela out of her thoughts, “She was wearin’ it ‘round ‘er neck when we found ‘er. Apparently it has everythin’ they’ve ever done to her on it.”  
“It’s in th’ bag.” Molly confirmed as she slipped the ball into Angela’s purse, “I got Winston’s permission ta give it ta Mummy after ‘e made copies of everythin’.”  
Cheshire looked into the bag and dug around until she pulled up a small, wrapped package, “This it?”  
“No, tha’s my present for ya.” Molly said.  
“You got me a present!?” Cheshire asked, her eyes sparkling with delight.  
“Yeah, I made it, kinda… I-I put it together ‘n-“ Molly fumbled, her cowlicks mimicking her flustered, fiddling fingers as she spoke.  
“Can I open this first?” She asked, eager and excited with wide sparkling eyes.  
“O-okay.” Molly agreed nervously, her cowlicks still fiddling with anxiety on the top of her head.  
Cheshire let out a squeal and hugged her daughter close and began happily tearing at the paper, much like Molly had at her birthday party. Angela felt the distress and rage start to melt away as a smile curled up her cheeks.  
It was like watching an older Molly for a moment as she pulled the last bit of paper away and held up the necklace Angela had found on Halloween.  
The crystal’s color made it look as if it was sparkling and glowing in the sunlight that came in from the windows, Cheshire stared at it like one would stare at a precious treasure before looking to her daughter, her eyes watering.  
“You made this for me all by yourself?” She asked, obviously touched.  
“I-I didn’t make th’ crystal part, but yeah.” Molly said, “Da’ told me you loike th’ color yellow ‘n th’ crystal means happiness so I wanted ta get it for you. I-I bought it all by myself with my tooth fairy money ‘n some of the money I got for winning a bet with McCree…”  
Cheshire quickly put it on and hugged her tightly as she nuzzled her cheek against the top of her daughter’s head, “I love it, sweetheart, thank you. Thank you so much…” she murmured into her hair before kissing her cowlicks, which immediately curled up into their normal heart shape as Molly hugged her back, “I’m glad you loike it Mummy!” she said as she nuzzled deeper into her mother’s embrace.  
She looked to Junkrat, to see how he was reacting, only to find him with his phone out. He gave her a smile and a shrug. She beamed back, pleased that he’d managed to film it as she’d doubt Ana or Hana would be happy to not see this sweet moment between mother and daughter.  
She looked across the table and saw Sombra was filming it too. Angela pulled out her phone and sent Sombra a text reading, ‘More to mock Moira with?’  
Sombra’s phone dinged and she quickly opened up the text and her smile grew while she read it. She quickly typed back a reply and sent it back to her.  
Angela looked at the message that appeared on her phone; ‘More for me, but I can do two things with this… ;) ‘  
The mother-daughter pair finally parted as lunch was served, their waitress told them to let her know when they wanted dessert before leaving with an empty tray. Angela nearly asked the waitress about the comment, as it was possible that they’d be full from lunch or on diets or just might not want dessert, only for her phone to ding, letting her know about another message;  
‘Cheshire has a secret surprise for her baby girl, shhh!’ Angela sent back an emoji of a face with a closed zipper for a mouth to confirm she understood before she reminded Molly to call Hana to let them know they had their food.  
“Oh, right!” she said as she dialed, then she then pressed one more button and they heard the phone ring once before Hana picked up, “Alright, so you all have your lunches?” she asked.  
“Yup!” Molly confirmed, “Even Bob has one!” Bob let out a bark in confirmation, Angela feeling his tail wagging again, but she didn’t hear him start to chow down, so she was guessing he was waiting for something.  
“Everyone’s got a plate here too, even the omnics, oh and the new guy wanted to thank you for making everyone lunch! Hang on, I’m giving him the phone so you can say hi!”  
Cheshire and Sombra stiffened a bit at the mention of a new member and Angela bit her lip. Uh oh… they were not supposed to hear that.  
“Hello?” A male voice called, he had a bit of an accent that Angela believed sounded slightly French.  
“G’day!” Molly said back cheerfully, not noticing the adults reactions around her as Bob let out a bark from under the table, “I’m Molly ‘n th’ bark was my puppy Bob, who are you?”  
“Oh, you can call me Baptiste! Thank you very much for lunch! It looks incredible, I cannot wait to eat it!” Molly beamed, pleased that he was so excited by the lunch she probably made for everyone if Jack’s comments yesterday and Hana’s insistence about Molly contacting her when they ordered and when they got their food was anything to go by.  
Cheshire looked to Sombra, concerned as Sombra’s eyes focused on the food on her plate, her hands shaking a bit.  
“Molly put ya on speaker.” Junkrat told them, “So we can all hear you.”  
“Is that a bad thing?” the man asked, sounding a bit confused.  
“Hola Baptiste.” Sombra called softly into the phone, her eyes finally moving away from her food and to Molly’s phone. Molly held it up for her so she could hear better and she took it with a small smile and a ‘gracias’.  
“Sombra?” He replied, confused.  
“Yeah, Molly’s Mama is my bodyguard, so we took some time off for her to visit. The boss already knows you were headed to Overwatch and asked us to get you if we could find you, but-“ Her smile curled back up into it’s usual size as she said that, “He should’ve waited to ask when we weren’t on vacation. So enjoy your lunch, oh, and since we’re on different sides now, we’ll probably have to postpone the next spice contest for a while, so maybe next time I have some time off, I’ll come by and show you how a real spice master can handle it.”  
It was quiet on the other end of the phone and finally, the male voice let out a laugh, “If you think you can handle it, Sombra, I’ll take you on whenever you want!” He promised.  
“Looking forward to it.” She purred before handing Molly her phone back. Molly thanked her and Hana called out, “Okay Molly, how do you wanna do this?”  
“Well, ‘m hungry, so can we jus’ have ‘Thena do a count down from three and then we’ll eat?”  
“Okay! Athena, can you start the count down?” Hana asked.  
“Certainly Agent Song.” Athena’s voice replied, “Start your meals in three-“  
Everyone at the table grabbed their utensils or sandwiches, ready to eat.  
“Two-“  
Molly smiled broadly as she held the sandwich her open mouth, the child already salivating.  
“One- Enjoy your lunches.”  
“Thank you Athena.” Molly said before biting into her sandwich and letting out a happy hum. Angela took a bite of her apple, walnut and spinach salad and let out a hum of her own. She could see why this place was so popular, the food was delicious!  
As she looked around the table, she could see the others would probably agree. Junkrat was happily munching into his bacon burger, Cheshire’s eyes were sparkling as she took a bite of her cheese and spinach ravoli with meat sauce and Sombra’s face was red, but delighted as she dug into her spicy thai burritos. And she took a peak down below to see Bob chowing down, his tail wagging and hitting Junkrat’s flesh leg.  
They could hear chewing from the other end of the line and after a moment, Hana’s voice came through again,“Alright, Molly, we’re all gonna eat, see you when you get back!”  
“’Kay Hana! Enjoy your lunch!”  
“You too! Bye!”  
“Hoo roo!” Molly said with a wave, even though Hana couldn’t see her before terminating the call and putting her phone back in her pocket so she could devour her lunch with a smile on her face and her cowlicks in their usual heart shape on her head.  
“So, uh,” Sombra said, “I’ve been wondering, how does she move her hair like that?” She then held up two fingers behind her head, almost as if giving herself bunny ears.  
“Oh, we believe that those move involuntarily, as she doesn’t really notice she’s doing it.” Angela replied as she speared more of her salad onto her fork.  
“Notice ‘m doin’ wha?”Molly asked with a mouthful of sandwich.  
“Oi, Molls, mouth closed when yer eatin’.” Junkrat reminded her with a mouthful of burger, “Torturin’ tha’ Korpal bloke is one thin’,” he swallowed and took another mouthful before saying that, “But this is a noice place, so ya have ta remember ta moind yer manners.”  
“Sorry.” She said, then swallowed her mouthful, “I forgot.”  
Angela and Sombra looked at one another, as if to silently ask one another which one actually needed to work on that more before Cheshire said (without a mouthful of food), “Tha’ remoinds me, Mercy, you mentioned ‘fore how you would tell me how ‘er lessons are goin’?”  
“Oh, right, yes!” Angela said, snapping back into focus, “I believe that there is something in that bag Molly gave you that can help me with that, if you wouldn’t mind…”  
“It’s th’ big one, Mummy!” Molly said with a mouthful of food, she then quickly covered her mouth and muttered a ‘sorry’.  
Cheshire dug into the bag and pulled out the tablet her daughter had wrapped herself. After shoving a mouthful of food into her mouth and tearing open the paper, she swallowed and held up the hardlight tablet, unsure of how to make of it.  
“Ohh-Nice tech!” Sombra said, reaching for it.  
Cheshire lightly swatted her hand, “Sombra, no! No touchin’ ‘til we know what it’s for.”  
Sombra stuck out her tongue at her before shoving a mouthful of burrito into her face with a pout.  
“We have it attached to a cloud account that will update everyday with videos of Molly, her progress in her studies as well as an overview of how well she’s doing in her education-“  
“How am I doin’?” Molly asked, crumbs falling out of her mouth as she spoke.  
“I didn’t read all of the comments, but I'm pretty sure that the only thing you need to work on is your handwriting.” Angela said.  
Molly pouted and shoved some of the crisps into her mouth as she mumbled, “Letters are hard…”  
Sombra and Junkrat snickered as Cheshire gently rubbed her little girl’s back and murmured, “It’s alroight luv, yer gettin’ better ‘n tha’s what matters.”  
Angela decided it would be a good idea to move forward, then reached over and pointed to an icon with the letters ‘abc’ on it, “We’ll put updates on her lessons here, I don’t know how often we’ll update it just yet, as she has many teachers teaching her different things and our lesson plans change often, but we’ll try to update it as often as we can. We did get everyone to submit a progress report for her work so far for you so you know where she stands now.”  
Cheshire pressed the button and the format came up.  
“You can click the subject and you’ll see our comments about her progress and even results of her tests and images of her work.” Angela explained, “Like this.” She pressed ‘General Science’ and Winston’s report popped up.  
Cheshire read the Silverback Scientist’s words with wide eyes, her pasta forgotten as she flicked at the screen to finish reading the report and then began poking and flicking at the screen.  
“Are there any videos?” Sombra asked eagerly.  
“Not many,” Angela said, “Many of her lessons aren’t recorded by video and we felt it was better to wait until she’s gotten better with her self defense lessons before recording them, just in case.”  
“You that afraid of Moira seeing?” Sombra asked, “Cause we don’t hang out with her and we don’t let her watch videos with us...”  
“It’s more that a lot of these lessons happen in certain areas of the base we’d rather you all not see.” Angela said.  
“You say that like I don’t already know where they are.” Sombra said, a little miffed at being underestimated.  
“I think she means th’ others.” Cheshire said, “Last thing they want is Widow knowin’ where ta loine up ‘er shots.”  
“Don’ matter, Ape had Sat replace all th’ windows with hard loight ones. So none of ‘um will go through anyways.” Junkrat told her.  
Angela glared at him, annoyed he’d give that little tidbit away.  
“What, suit probably already told ‘um tha’. She still reports most of what she does ta ‘im.” Junkrat pointed out.  
“Speaking of Symmetra.” Sombra purred, her eyes lit up with excitement, “How are things going with you two? Go on any big dates yet? Have any romantic get away plans?”  
“Nah, suit’s gotten more persistant in ‘is checks since Nan’s party. If we went out together fer anything other than a mission, he’d foind a reason ta drag ‘er back.” He said, his disappointment and frustration clear in his voice.  
“Was tha’ why ‘e was ‘ere then?” Cheshire asked, “Ta try ta nab ‘er?”  
Angela froze, “He was here?!” she blurted, horrifed by that fact.  
“Yeah, came in last noight ‘parently.” Junkrat reported, “Was tryin’ ta get Sat inta town to see ‘im with th’ excuse of tryin’ ta get ‘er ta go to some borin’ bash. She didn’ look too keen on it when ‘e mentioned it.” He then helped himself to more of his lunch and told them, with a mouthful of deep fried potato, “So I moight’ve mentioned tha’ Ches ‘ere is Molly’s Mum ‘n tha’ she’s in town ‘n still pretty pissed about what ‘e did ta Molls ‘n tha’ ‘e should leg it while ‘e was still in one piece.”  
“Shouldn’ of warned him.” Cheshire growled.  
“Oi, if ya killed ‘im, you would’ve been too busy dodgin’ coppers ta come today, ‘n then you miss Molls all dolled up!” He pointed out, motioning to the little girl at the booth, “She put on one of ‘er best dresses for ya!”  
Molly smiled, “Yeah! ‘N Angie did my hair all pretty too!”  
Cheshire smiled and pulled her daughter back onto her lap and gave her a warm hug, “You look gorgeous, luv.” She cooed, making Molly smile and her cheeks turn pink with glee, “We both look pretty, Mummy! We match!”  
Bob barked from under the table and Cheshire smiled and ducked under the table for a moment to pick him up and plop him in the booth with them, “You look pretty too, Bob!” Molly told him, “I’m glad we’re all matching!”  
“Should’ve gotten somethin’ fer yer Da’ too.” Junkrat teased, “Mean, ‘is hair is long enough so we could style it like yours so then you’d all really be matching!”  
Molly and Bob looked delighted at the idea while three adult women at the table let out a snort in unison before covering their mouths and struggling to control their laughter, Angela picturing Mako wearing an enormous citrus patterned shirt, his hair braided and the four of them looking as if they were posing for one of those old fashioned matching family outfit Christmas cards that Torb’s family still loved sending out every year.  
“I think it would be difficult to find something with that pattern in his size.” Angela finally squeaked, laughter still clear in her voice as Cheshire put Bob back down onto the floor.  
“Hana’s takin’ ‘im, Reinhardt ‘n Winston out clothes shoppin’ today.” Molly informed them, “So maybe they’ll find somethin’ tha’ he could wear ta match with us!”  
“Here’s hopin’, Molls!” Junkrat said, holding up his glass so she could clink it with his, Bob barking most likely in agreement and his wagging tail hitting her leg.  
Angela smiled and began finishing up her lunch, pausing when she noticed that there were still some unopened presents by Molly’s side as she finished munching on the last bit of her lunch and began draining the last of her juice.  
“Molly, when you’re finished eating, why don’t you finish opening up your birthday presents?” She suggested. Molly’s eyes widened and she immediately stuffed the last chips into her mouth, wiped her hands on her napkin and chugged down a big gulp of her juice before tearing into one of the packages from her mother.  
Angela munched on her lunch as the paper was shredded from the package before Molly opened the box within to reveal…  
“Noice.” Junkrat complimented, “Got some good workin’ gloves there, Molls!”  
Molly held the gloves up to see them better, they were a dark shade of green and the fingers were cut off, but looked to be made from leather and something else equally durable with a small strip of metal on the backs of her hands.  
“They’re not jus’ fer workin’.” Cheshire said as she helped slipped one of the gloves onto her daughter’s hands, “These can also help just in case Molly ever needs ta,” she paused, “Ya know.” She tapped at the bracelet with her finger as she then explained that, “Figured there’d be a time where she might need to be able to do what she needs to and then slip this back onta ‘er skin. So, got ‘er these, they are good workin’ gloves, so no one would question why she’s got ‘um, but if she ever needs ta send someone reelin’…” She carefully slipped Molly’s bracelet past the cuff on her wrist and then slipped it back onto her skin, “People won’ think much of a kid fiddlin’ with a bracelet loike tha’ ‘n it let’s her have more options in case of danger.” She explained.  
Angela’s mind reeled, it was true that Junkrat and Mako both wore them often (Junkrat not being allowed to right now) and she’d bet that, when Cheshire was dressed for work, she wore them as well. And since they were some of the more publicly known Junkers, to the rest of the world, Molly wearing these gloves all the time could simply be written off as ‘a Junker thing’. With her strange liking for tank tops, camouflage cargo shorts and combat boots for every day wear, it probably wouldn’t be to hard to pass the gloves off as just one more bit of every day Junkerwear… although now that she thought about it, Molly did live in what used to basically be a military compound, so that could also explain her style preferences, but it probably had more to do with her fellow Junkers’ fashion influence than anything to do with the military… As for if anyone questioned the bracelet, well it was a gift after all and she liked it, so of course she would wear it.  
Molly put on the other glove and moved her bracelet up and down the cuff of the glove, then smiled impishly, “I can be sneaky with these.” She said gleefully.  
“Daw,” Sombra cooed, then looked at Junkrat, “I want details on what she gets up to.” She said plainly. He smiled broadly, his gold tooth gleaming as he gave her a thumbs up, “Trust me, I’ll make sure we keep ya up ta date on tha’! Wouldn’t want ya ta miss out on all the mischief she’ll make!” He laughed.  
Sombra seemed pleased with that before saying, “Oh, that reminds me,” she then held up her phone to Molly, “You mind sending me your number? Just in case Rat isn’t around when you’re up to something.”  
“Okay!” she said, swapping phones with Sombra and tapping on the screen for a few moments before they traded them back. Then she held up her phone to her mother, “You too, Mummy! Da’ said I should get yer number ‘n tha’ you should let me, Da’, Rat ‘n Angie know th’ next toime you can come fer a visit!”  
Cheshire eyes’ warmed and she pulled her own phone out and said, “Alroight, but can you help me with my cellular? I’m no good with this thing.”  
Molly nodded eagerly, “Yeah! I know lots ‘bout phones! Hana taught me!”  
Cheshire asked her more about it as Molly began putting her cell phone number into her Mother’s phone and looking up the phone number her mother had so she could put it into her own phone, only to stare.  
“Yeah, I put your Mama’s number in already.” Sombra informed them, “Thought it would be a good idea so if you ever leave Overwatch’s base, we can know to steer the rest of Talon away from where you might go.”  
“Oh, tha’ reminds me!” Molly said as she turned to Cheshire, “Mummy, ‘m gonna go ta Cairo soon!”  
Angela and Junkrat stiffened at her announcement, and glanced at one another as if silently agreeing that they should have gone over what Molly could and could not talk about on the ride down here in the car.  
“You are?” Cheshire asked, surprised.  
“Yeah, we’re gonna meet up with someone who wanted to buy-“ she then paused as the waitress returned, smiling at them, “I hope you left room for dessert!” she sang.  
“I always have room for dessert.” Molly told her. The waitress chuckled as she picked up their dirty plates from the table, “Good to know, I’ll put these away and get you all refills on drinks and I’ll be right back with dessert.” She told them, then finished collecting the dirty dishes and walked back toward the kitchen.  
“So, what did they want to buy?” Sombra asked.  
Molly pointed to herself and Cheshire sucked in a breath and Angela could see her body stiffen and her jaw clench.  
“Okay, so if that’s what they wanted, why are you going?” Her boss asked, her voice calm, although she could see her hand move over towards the eldest Junker’s arm, as if to hold her back from any attack she was about to launch into.  
“’Cause we don’ think tha’ they knew exactly what they would’ve gotten.” Junkrat replied, “We figure if we talk to ‘um ‘n explain exactly what they were gonna pay for tha’ they’ll be so pissed at what Hyde’s doin’ tha’ we can convince ‘um ta keep us in th’ loop fer any others they moight try ta sell ‘n help us foind ‘um ‘n get ‘um somewhere safe.”  
“… And do you have any information on that person?” Sombra asked.  
“It’s in th’ bag.” Molly told them, motioning to her mother’s gift bag. Sombra reached into the bag and pulled out Molly’s stick, the ribbon Molly had evidently tied around it while she hadn’t noticed hiding her old code name. Sombra arched an eyebrow and motioned to it with a shake of her head before her thumb moved the ribbon a bit and her eyes widened in surprise at the sight of the code name scribbled on there.  
“We would appreciate if you kept this data safe and secure, as some of your co-workers may try to use this information to do more harm than good to the other children.” Angela said softly, her words barely a whisper in the busy buzz of the café.  
Sombra nodded and stared at the stick, “Gotta say though, those guys are definitely up to something if they would be willing to use tech this old, most systems don’t even recognize this kind of drive anymore…”  
“You gonna have a problem gettin’ whatcha need off it?” Junkrat asked.  
“Nah, I bought several old computers online not too long ago for another project, I can probably use those to help me with this while I’m at it…”  
“Oh, right, you need ta unlock it.” Molly told her, then looked to Cheshire, “Mummy, can you please help me over ta Miss Sombra? I wanna tell ‘er a secret!”  
The elder Junker seemed a bit put out that her daughter would share a secret with her boss instead of her, but lifted her up and placed her next to the hacker, who leaned towards her as Molly cupped her hands around her mouth and whispered into her ear.  
“Seriously? That’s how they keep everything secure?” She scoffed as the little girl pulled away and gave her mother a hug as thanks, “Typical suck ups. Couldn’t have given you anything cooler to trace…”  
“Prob’ly figured it was best ta keep it simple.” Junkrat interrupted, “not loike they wanted ta risk teachin’ ‘um somethin’ tha’ could help ‘um get a leg up.”  
Sombra nodded, annoyed and a bit disgusted as she put the stick into her bag, “I’ll let you know if I find anything else that can help locate the others…”  
“Oh, that reminds me.” Angela said, “Can you pull out the tablet for me please? I want to show you something else.”  
Cheshire nodded, her eyes still dark with anger as she pulled the hardlight tablet out of the bag her daughter had given her and held it out to her, Angela poked at file labeled ‘Molly’s work’, “Molly made something you should see, it’s quite impressive, even an architect from Vishkar was impressed by it.” she said simply as she moved the tablet so only Cheshire could see it.  
Her violet eyes widened and she motioned for Sombra to take a look. The Hispanic Hacker leaned towards her to get a better look and her eyes lit up, “Oh, oh I can work with this.” She purred, excited as she began flipping through the photo.  
The waitress returned with full glasses of everyone’s preferred drink and collected their old ones and told them she’d be out with their dessert in a moment before leaving for the kitchen again.  
“Oi Molls, ya still got one more present.” Junkrat said, indicating a small package still sitting by her side.  
Molly took another sip of her juice and opened it to reveal what looked like a small box that one would get from a jewelry shop. She opened the top and gasped, her eyes wide and sparkling in awe.  
Angela leaned over and saw a beautiful golden locket in the shape of a firefly with two little purple crystal eyes and it’s wings, which looked as if they were small solar panels, open enough to reveal a small yellow green lens where it’s bottom would alight.  
“Every woman in our family gets a locket on their birthday, and when I saw this one, I just knew it was perfect for you.” Cheshire said softly.  
Molly just stared at it, her eyes finally starting to water, “It’s so pretty…” She looked up at her mother, “Is this really for me?”  
Cheshire’s face curled into a warm, loving smile as she nodded, “Of course it is, luv. Had it made special just for you.”  
Tears ran down both mother and daughter’s faces as they embraced, Molly murmuring, “Thank you, Mummy. I love it.”  
“I’m glad to hear it luv.” She cooed back. They held each other for another moment before they pulled away and Cheshire pointed to the locket, “You want help putting it on?”  
Molly nodded vigorously, making the table chuckle as Angela carefully leaned over to lift hair on the back of Molly’s neck out of the way, “So you can see better.” She explained. The eldest Junker smiled and nodded as she carefully took the necklace out of the box and closed two sets of latches, revealing the chain to be a bit long on the little girl as the locket sat on her chest, but Angela smiled as she accepted that it was probably a good idea for now, as she could hide it from anyone who might think to take it and that she’d grow into it.  
“The eyes are purple Tourmaline,” Sombra told her, “Your birthstone. We looked at the opal, but we liked the tormaline better, opal made the little bug look like it was sick or something. It’s a harder stone too, so you don’t need to worry about the wear as much.”  
“Wear?” Angela asked, making Sombra’s grin grow, “They’re not just pretty gems, they’re buttons.”  
“Buttons for what?” she asked.  
“It’s a locket.” Cheshire said as she finished closing the last clamp, “Inside this locket are pictures of my soide of the family, I also found a pic of Mac ‘n his mum ta put in there too. Figured it would be noice ta see a bit of yer family tree.”  
“Just press both eyes at once to turn it on or off.” Sombra explained, “I already put an app on your phone so you can see the pictures whenever you want that way too, and you can add more photos to it by just uploading them to the app, but you’ll need to have access to wifi to be able to send the pictures to the locket.”  
Molly stared at her newest treasure, her violet eyes sparkling much like the gems in the little bug’s eyes as she gently pressed both eyes and a hologram of a famliy of four with a big dog and a very grumpy looking cat appeared in front of her. Bob let out a bark and Junkrat scooped him up so he could stand on their seats and the pup hopped into Angela’s lap to get a better view.  
“Tha’s yer grandma ‘n grandpa.” Cheshire said, pointing to the smiling couple in the picture. They had kind eyes and warm smiles and were very slim and she could see pieces of Cheshire and Molly in both of them. “They were kinda push overs, but tha’s ‘cause they were just so noice ta people ‘n while they had lotsa people try ta walk all over ‘um, they had me ‘n a lotta good friends who had no problem standing up for ‘um.” She said.  
“Is tha’ you, Mummy?” Molly asked, pointing to the teenager with purple eyes smiling her big old Cheshire grin and her hair a mess of blonde waves seeming to jolt from her head. Her face and arms were covered in freckles and she wore a black t-shirt with a hand holding a red grenade on it, a pair of tan cargo shorts and bright yellow tennis shoes and a golden locket in the shape of a cat head hanging from her neck, it’s eyes a bright shade of purple as well.  
“Yup, tha’s me.” She confirmed, then pointed to the little girl in the picture, “’N tha’s yer Aunt Molly.”  
“I was named after ‘er, roight?” She asked. Cheshire hummed in confirmation, a far away look in her eyes.  
Angela leaned in a bit more to get a better look at Molly’s namesake.  
She seemed to be the same age as Molly in this picture. She had a warm, gentle but shy smile and freckles dotting her cheeks. She had blue eyes that seemed to sparkle with life, even in a photo. Her hair was a light blonde, almost sliver and came down her shoulders in gentle waves that were pulled back in pigtails. Her shoulders seemed a bit tense and her hands were twisted into a nervous gesture, her legs straight and stiff as boards.  
She was clearly a beautiful child, and she was clearly much younger and more timid than her sister, she could see why Cheshire would have been devastated to have been unable to protect her after losing the rest of their family in such a horrible way…  
Bob let out a bark and Angela had to keep herself from jumping at the sound.  
“Yer roight Bob,” Molly said, motioning to the dog and cat on the ground in the picture, “You haven’t told us who they are, Mummy.”  
“Oh,” Cheshire said, snapping out of her daze, “Th’ dog’s name is Jake ‘n th’ cat’s name was Fluffy. We adopted th’ dog after ‘e flunked out of military trainin’, figured, hey, havin’ ‘nother foighter in th’ house was never a bad thing. First toime I saw ‘im, thought ‘e could rip someone in half ‘n a second flat,” she chuckled, “I was so off base! Poor thing was scared of ‘is own shadow, always hoidin’ behoind me whenever somethin’ spooked him.” she looked at the photo fondly, “Sweet dog though, gentle as a lamb ‘n loved cuddlin’. Used ta put yer aunt next to him when she was barely two ‘n ‘e’d jus’ curl up around ‘er ‘n they’d be nappin’ in seconds. Worked everytoime!” She then pointed to the cat, “As fer this asshole, well, Fluffy was actually somethin’ one of the women who worked at your grandparent’s place brought in one day from the rain as a kitten. Since yer grandparent’s fang carpendry was called ‘Cheshire Smiles’, they thought it would be a cute idea to have ‘im as a mascot.” She started to laugh, “’E was such a nasty one when we first got ‘im! Always bitin’, scratchin’, hissin’, pissed on so much stuff ‘n ‘e bullied poor Jake, who just wanted to be ‘is mate. Eventually I got ‘im sorted so ‘e only picked on people who wanted to bully my family ‘n the people who worked for ‘um so I wouldn’ have to bloody guard the place ‘n got ‘im ta be noice ta Jake.”  
“So they became friends?” Molly asked, sounded delighted that they had overcome the cat’s apparent dislike of everyone to become friends.  
“They became great mates,” Cheshire confirmed, “although the poor pup would still leg it if Fluffy hissed at ‘im. Was a great guard cat ‘n sometoimes ‘e was actually a sweetheart, but those were rare toimes.” She looked down at Molly, “Still, was happy ta have some help keepin’ bullies away ‘n ‘e was good at tha’. Jake was better for comforting ‘n knowing where to go ta keep us out of trouble.”  
Molly looked as if she was about to ask what happened to them, then stopped herself, probably deciding that it was a topic for another day. Lucky, the waitress was back with several other waiters and waitresses behind her and what looked like a homemade cake with a sparkler candle on it on a tray in her hands, “I have a special delivery for a certain birthday girl!” she said cheerfully before the staff started to clap and sing her a little song.  
Molly seemed surprised for a moment before Angela saw Junkrat tap at Bob’s behind and the dog launched itself into her lap and made her squeal as he moved her bracelet off of her skin and onto her gloves with his nose as he gave her a kiss on the cheek.  
She laughed as he settled next to her, as if to watch the show. Molly’s cowlicks suddenly sticking straight up and then formed into the shape of a thumbs up before returning to their usual curled heart shape as she smiled at the wait staff standing in front of their table and clapped when they finished the song with the rest of the table, “Thank you! This is so noice of you!” she said.  
“Don’t thank us.” The waitress said, “Thank your Mother, she was the one who told us about your birthday and made this cake for you and asked us to hold onto it until after you’d finished your lunch!”  
Molly’s eyes widened and she beamed at her mother, “Thank you, Mummy!” she cried before giving her a big hug, Cheshire quickly returning it with a laugh. Bob barked and began licking at Cheshire’s arm, his tail wagging.  
The waitress chuckled at the sight before putting the plate down on the table, the candle still sparkling, “Blow out the candle and make your wish!” she said.  
Molly nodded and seemed to take a moment or two to think about it and then smiled and blew out the candle. It relit again and Molly blew it out two more times before it finally stayed out. The group clapped and the rest of the staff pulled out a knife and plates and began cutting and serving the cake to all the humans at the table. One waiter pulling a treat from his apron pocket, “sorry pup, you can’t eat the cake, but here, have this!” Bob licked the man’s hand before accepting the treat and began to munch on it.  
The crowd left with the waitress telling them to let them know when they were ready for the check before following the rest of them.  
Cheshire watched nervously as the littlest junker happily took her first bite of the cake, and stiffened when Molly’s cowlicks spiked upwards again… only to curl back into their usual heart shape as she looked to her and cried, “This is really yummy, Mummy! Thank you!!”  
She let out a breath of relief and picked up her own fork, “I’m glad you loike it, luv, it’s your Grandma’s special recipe.”  
Molly pressed the purple stones on her necklace and the picture from before popped back up at the table, “Grandma used to make this?” she asked softly, her eyes glued to the image sitting in front of her of the parts of her family she would never meet.  
Angela finally decided to speak up again, “Cheshire, perhaps the next time you visit, you can teach Molly how to make this cake?” She offered.  
“It was fun to make it with you last night.” Sombra piped up, “I’m sure you two would enjoy doing that together.”  
Junkrat let out a laugh, revealing bits of chocolate in his teeth and that his slice was already half eaten, “I wouldn’t moind havin’ this again!” he told them.  
“Oh, that reminds me, Hana told me she was thinking of doing a cooking show with Molly,” Angela said cheerfully, pleased she could bring this up, “She asked me if you wouldn’t mind picking out an apron for her.” She motioned to Cheshire, whose eyes widened in what seemed to be surprise for a moment before a flush crept up her cheeks.  
“I can have an apron Mummy picks out fer me?” Molly asked, excited at the prospect.  
“You can have an apron yer Mum picks out fer ya tha’ you can show off.” Junkrat told her, giving her a toothy grin, “So it’s even better.”  
“He’s right about that.” Sombra agreed, “Let’s find one that will make people so jealous!”  
“There is a nice shop near here that has some cute aprons for children, why don’t we head there after lunch?” Angela offered.  
The group agreed and continued to enjoy their cake, Angela happily making a mental note to be available for taste testing when Cheshire could teach Molly the recipe before diving back into her own slice as well.  
If lunch was anything to go by, the rest of this visit would be a delight!

**Author's Note:**

> I'm actually pretty far into the story, I've been uploading it to fan fiction, but recently I've been thinking about bringing my fics here too. I have lots of them and they're pretty long, so I've decided to just start with Dadhog, as it's the (currently) most active WIP I've got and I have plenty of chapters to upload so I can get used to this site a bit faster.  
Please bare with me as I try to get used to this site.  
Thank you for reading!


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